Myrickite
Lapidary material SiO2
Take care.
- Contains mercury: Wash your hands after handling it, and never heat it: the fumes are poisonous.
About it
White to grey chalcedony or common opal stained blood-red by inclusions of cinnabar, a mercury sulfide. Named for prospector Shady Myrick and found in the Mojave Desert of California; cut it wet.
- Type
- Lapidary material
- Group
- Chalcedony with cinnabar
- Formula
- SiO2
- Hardness (Mohs)
- 6.5–7
- Specific gravity
- 2.57–2.64
- Streak
- white
- Lustre
- waxy, vitreous (glassy)
- Crystal system
- Trigonal
- Colours
- white, grey, with red patches
- Transparency
- translucent, opaque
- Cleavage and fracture
- none; conchoidal to uneven fracture
Typical values: real specimens vary. For more, see mindat.org.