Calomel

specimen number:
2133398

location:
Landsberg, Obermoschel, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

description:
An area approximately 0.5 cm across covered with crystallized calomel. nice for this old classic German locality. The specimen comes with an antique label as shown at the end of the video.

The Landsberg (also known as Moschellandsberg) mining district, situated near Obermoschel in the Rhineland-Palatinate region of Germany, is a historic mining locality famous for its unique mercury mineralization. Geologically, the deposit is hosted within Carboniferous to Permian sedimentary strata and volcanic rocks of the Saar-Nahe Basin, where low-temperature hydrothermal fluids filled fractures and fault zones with mercury-bearing minerals. Industrial mining at Landsberg dates back to the fourteenth century, with intermittent periods of intense activity during the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries targeting rich cinnabar veins. The mines experienced a revival in the mid-nineteenth century, but declining ore grades and volatile market conditions led to a permanent cessation of formal commercial mining operations by World War II, leaving the old adits and dumps as important localities for historical mineralogical research.

Calomel is a mercury chloride mineral that crystallizes in the tetragonal system, typically forming as a secondary or alteration mineral in the oxidized zones of mercury deposits. Geologically, it develops through the weathering and oxidation of primary cinnabar or native mercury when exposed to chlorine-rich groundwaters near the surface. The mineral is visually distinct, appearing as translucent to transparent, tabular or prismatic crystals and crusts that range in color from colorless and white to pale yellow, amber, or light gray. It features a brilliant adamantine luster and is highly sensitive to light, often darkening upon prolonged exposure.

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