The abundance of mercury in rocks,minerals and native sulphur by a microwave-excited argon plasma

Igneous rocks, silicate minerals and native sulphur have been analysed for their mercury content by a microwave-excited argon plasma. Basic and ultrabasic igneous rocks have abundances between 3 and 31 ppb Hg. The granitic rocks show much larger variations. The content in the silicate minerals is highly variable, ranging from less than 1 ppb Hg in an igneous biotite to 55 ppb Hg in a pegmatitic biotite. The analysed clay minerals give 110 and 200 ppb Hg. Volcanic elemental S contain from 11 to 9300 ppb Hg, the values on the lower side being from oceanic volcanoes and on the higher side for continental or marginal volcanoes.