ON THE PROBLEM OF THE GENESIS OF CINNABAR AND METACINNABARITE

Experiments have been made on the synthesis of cinnabar and metacinnabarite in conditions close to those of hydrothermal processes of the formation of mercury deposits in nature. If may be concluded that during the formation processes of mercury the first to fall out .is metacinnabarite, The fate of metacinnabarite depends on the medium that surrounds it. If hydrothermal waters carrying alkaline solutions Me₂HgS₂ will continue to effect the formed metacinnabrite, the latter will gradually become a more stable red modification HgS, i. e., ,cinnabar. If the inflow of the mercury sulfide solutions stops or becomes so weak that under the counteraction of acid or even neutral vadose waters there will not be enough solvent in the form of ions S^2-, necessary for the changing of metacinnabarite into cinnabar, then the former will be preserved in the same state for a long time. — auth. English Summ.