Cinnabar is ... Cinnabar (mineral): photo

Cinnabar is a mineral that has long been the basis of a rich red paint. It was made by the Etruscans, ancient Egyptians, and Phoenicians. In Russia, this paint was used when painting the icons. The mineral on fresh cleavage resembles bright spots of blood. From Arabic, "cinnabar" is translated as "dragon blood." The second name of the stone is cinnabarite.

Cinnabar is a mineral that contains 86.2% of mercury. It crystallizes in the syngony, mainly forming small thick-plate or rhombohedral crystals, powdery or granular-crystalline masses. For a stone, the twinning of germination and the cleavage, perfect in the first direction, are also characteristic. In fine fragments, the mineral is transparent, has an interesting "diamond" shine. The stone melts easily, and when heated to 200 ° C completely evaporates, forming a vapor of sulfur dioxide and mercury.

Origin

These minerals and stones are the most common minerals of mercury. Occur in near-surface hydrothermal deposits along with calcite, quartz, antimonite, barite, galena, pyrite, marcasite, sometimes with native gold and with native mercury. Cinnabar is often deposited in veins in jasperoid strongly metamorphosed rocks associated with hot alkaline sources and recently stopped by volcanic activity.

Industrial self-interest is represented by residual fairly large eluvial-sloping placers, alluvial and spoon placers of near-demolition, gold-bearing placers, from which cinnabar is extracted at the same time. Residual placers of the mineral are most common in places where chemical weathering appears. Small, but very rich accumulations of mineral are confined to deluvial and eluvial deposits in karst cavities and funnels.

In high and temperate latitudes, you can also find a cinnabar. This is due to the collapse of the interfluves and slopes in the area of the ore field. The eluvial-slope mineral placers are in the form of reservoir deposits and contain cinnabar together with quartz (native mercury is also found). But in alluvial and spoon placers the mineral accumulates in the form of grains and pellets, which are composed of massive dense differences. Its main mass is on the dam. These placers have a length of 1-2 km, with the thickness of the layer - up to 3 m. They are mainly associated with the indigenous sources that come out at the bottom of the valleys, in addition, they are deposits of nesting or a striated structure. Placer cinnabar is in North America, in the Northeast of Russia. Age placer mineral pliocene-Quaternary; At the same time in the Northeast of our country alluvial funeral placers of cinnabar were found among the seaside hollows.

Place of Birth

The world's largest deposit is in Spain, it accounted for until recently about 80% of all mercury mining in the world. Also mined in Ukraine, Yugoslavia, Italy, the United States. From the deposits of Central Asia, the largest in Kyrgyzstan (Khaidarkan and Chauvai), as well as in Tajikistan (Adrasman). In our country there is also a large deposit in Chukotka.

Magical properties

Professionals say that cinnabar is a mineral that understands and feels all the problems of its master, but does not calm, but teaches a difficult period to experience easier - to laugh at the situation and yourself. The stone shows the owner how best to behave in order to avoid further trouble. In general, the cinnabar, the color of which many associate with blood, can change the human character and teach us how to live, not survive, learning life lessons and enjoying.

Astrologers advise wearing items with this mineral to all the signs of the zodiac except Scorpio. Best of all, he serves the Taurus. Although if you constantly carry minerals and stones with you, then the state of human health may be shaken. Due to this, experts advise the product with such a nugget to be worn only in difficult life situations. In doing so, do this until the moment when the attitude to the precedent changes, and the person does not begin to treat with humor to trouble.

The prevalence of cinnabar was especially prevalent during the heyday of alchemy in European countries. Then mercury was a symbol of the search for immortality. It was an indispensable component of the research of every self-respecting alchemist. Many people associate the purple hue of mercury vapors with a mystery.

Needless to say, alchemists did not often live to be thirty, and most of them, according to contemporaries, had signs of mercury poisoning.

Healing properties

Since cinnabar is a mercury sulphide, this mineral can not be used for treatment. Its intake inside can lead to poisoning or death of a person. In the East, in ancient times, stone was used to treat leprosy, although its effectiveness is questionable. In small doses, a cinnabar was used in Europe, the color of which affects many today, for the treatment of syphilis, but often it leads to death or severe poisoning of the patient.

Amulets and Talismans

This stone is the talisman of financiers, businessmen, people who tend to dramatize situations, as well as all who repeat several times a mistake. It can be used with caution and occasionally.

Interesting

Red cinnabar in the Roman Empire was extracted for obtaining red natural pigment and mercury. And today some of the Roman mines are being developed. Pliny the Elder in his writings mentions that in Spain Ancient Rome bought every year about 4.5 tons of mercury.

Another ancient mine is Khaidarkan in Kirghizia, where various traces of ancient works have been preserved: metal wedges, large workings, retorts made from clay for roasting cinnabar, lamps, huge dumps of cinder formed during this. Archaeological excavations show that mercury was mined in Kyrgyzstan for many centuries, and only in the 13th and 14th centuries, after the successors of Genghis Khan destroyed all the craft and shopping centers here, ore mining was stopped. In the middle of the twentieth century, this field of Khaidarkan actively resumed its work. In ancient times, the mineral was extracted not as a source of mercury, but as an expensive and indispensable mineral pigment.