Mercury
specimen number:
1052839
location:
Sonoma Co., California, USA
description: Sonoma County, California, lies within the Mayacmas district of the Coast Ranges, where mercury mineralization is hosted in the Mesozoic Franciscan Complex. Cinnabar, the primary mercury ore, deposited during the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs as hydrothermal fluids from volcanic activity rose along faults, altering serpentine into silica-carbonate rock. Historically, mining began in the 1860s to supply mercury for gold processing during the California Gold Rush. Mines such as the Socrates and Culver-Baer operated intermittently until the late twentieth century, when environmental regulations and declining demand ended production.
Small metallic blebs of native mercury on matrix.
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