All practice pages/Interatomic theory/Elements
Element 80, a transition metal
The only metal that is liquid at room temperature: quicksilver to the alchemists, and a toxic pollutant today.
Period 6, group 12. The other transition metals are tinted, and every cell opens its own article.
Mercury holds its two 6s electrons so tightly that its atoms bond only weakly to one another, which is why it is a liquid. In compounds it forms Hg²⁺ or the unusual paired ion Hg₂²⁺.
Mined almost entirely as cinnabar (HgS), a red mineral. The mine at Almadén in Spain produced mercury for about 2,000 years; today China produces most of it.
Known since ancient times; mercury has been found in Egyptian tombs from around 1500 BCE. It is named after the Roman messenger god and the planet, and the symbol Hg comes from its Latin name hydrargyrum, water-silver.
Once common in thermometers, barometers and blood pressure gauges, and still used in some fluorescent lamps and industrial processes. Dental amalgam fillings contain it. Small-scale gold miners use it to extract gold, now the largest source of mercury pollution.
Mercury vapor and mercury compounds damage the nervous system and kidneys. Methylmercury builds up in fish, and in the 1950s mercury waste dumped into Minamata Bay in Japan poisoned thousands of people. Spilled mercury should never be vacuumed.