Send us feedback. See more words from the same century. Accessed 11 Nov. More Definitions for cinnabar. Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!
Log in Sign Up. Save Word. Definition of cinnabar. First Known Use of cinnabar 14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1. Learn More About cinnabar. Time Traveler for cinnabar The first known use of cinnabar was in the 14th century See more words from the same century. Style: MLA. Medical Definition of cinnabar. More from Merriam-Webster on cinnabar Britannica.
Get Word of the Day daily email! Because it is toxic, its pigment and jewelry uses have almost been discontinued. Cinnabar is a hydrothermal mineral that precipitates from ascending hot waters and vapors as they move through fractured rocks. It forms at shallow depths where temperatures are less than about degrees Celsius. It usually forms in rocks surrounding geologically recent volcanic activity but can also form near hot springs and fumaroles.
Cinnabar precipitates as coatings on rock surfaces and as fracture fillings. Less often, cinnabar can be deposited in the pore spaces of sediments. It is usually massive in habit and is rarely found as well-formed crystals. Other sulfide minerals are generally found associated with cinnabar. These can include pyrite , marcasite , realgar , and stibnite. Gangue minerals associated with cinnabar include quartz , dolomite , calcite , and barite. Small droplets of liquid mercury are sometimes present on or near cinnabar.
Cinnabar in sediment porosity: Cinnabar sometimes precipitates from fluids moving through the porosity of a sediment or a sedimentary rock. In those cases it can infill the pore spaces as a weak "cement.
As a mineral ore of mercury, cinnabar is a hazardous material. It should be treated as a toxic substance. It is not a mineral to be handled or used with students. It should be stored with a label that warns unknowing people who might encounter it in your specimen cabinet, display case, or storage location.
Cinnabar crystals: Bright red cinnabar crystals on a dolomite matrix. Crystals are about 1. Cinnabar on Dolomite: Cinnabar is often associated with dolomite. These minerals can be found together in fracture fillings and in the linings of cavities in rock.
The most striking property of cinnabar is its red color. Its bright color makes it easy to spot in the field and is a fascination for those who discover it.
It has a Mohs hardness of 2 to 2. It has a specific gravity of 8. The luster of cinnabar ranges from dull to adamantine. Specimens with a dull luster are usually massive, contain abundant impurities and do not have the brilliant red color of pure cinnabar. Adamantine specimens are usually the rarely found crystals. Metacinnabar: Crystals of metacinnabar on a rock surface. Specimen is about 3. Metacinnabar is a polymorph of cinnabar. It has the same chemical composition HgS as cinnabar but a different crystal structure.
Cinnabar is trigonal, while metacinnabar is isometric. The two minerals should not be confused with one another because metacinnabar has a metallic gray color, a gray-to-black streak and a metallic-to-submetallic luster. Chinese red cinnabar lacquer box: A carved wooden box with a red lacquer finish from China's Ming Dynasty Period box c. Boxes like this were frequently painted with a lacquer containing a cinnabar pigment.
Mercury still: Textbook sketch of a still used for the distillation of mercury from cinnabar. Public domain image from Alchimia, Anonymous, Cinnabar is the only important ore of mercury. For thousands of years, cinnabar has been mined and heated in a furnace. The mercury escapes as a vapor that can be condensed into liquid mercury.
Through time, people in almost every country where volcanoes are present discovered cinnabar and realized its utility as a pigment. Cinnabar is one of a very small number of minerals that was independently discovered, processed and utilized by ancient people in many parts of the world.
Cinnabar was mined at the volcano, ground into a very fine powder, and then mixed with liquids to produce many types of paint. The bright red pigments known as "vermilion" and "Chinese red" were originally made from cinnabar.
Cinnabar has been especially popular for making red lacquer in China. Its use in lacquer has declined because of its toxicity, but some use of cinnabar in lacquer continues. Cinnabar has also been used in powdered form for ritual blessings and burials. Powdered cinnabar was used as a cosmetic in many parts of the world for thousands of years. Eventually it was discovered that cinnabar is toxic, and its use in pigments, paints, and cosmetics began to decline.
0コメント