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Formula: Hg3O2(SO4)
Valence: Hg2+3O2(S6+O4)
Anhydrous sulphate of mercury
Crystal System: Trigonal
Specific gravity: 8.18 measured, 8.36 calculated
Hardness: 3
Colour: Canary-yellow, orange-yellow, brownish yellow. Does not darken on exposure to light, unlike the
yellow mercury oxychlorides, such as terlinguaite
Environments
Hydrothermal environments
Furnace bricks
Schuetteite has been found as a supergene mineral in
several mercury deposits in the more arid parts of the western United
States, and is a common product on dumps of burnt ore and bricks from old
mercury furnaces. In natural occurrences schuetteite has been found
on cinnabar surfaces exposed to sunlight. It is believed to have formed
through direct oxidation of cinnabar by oxygen-bearing surface water with
sunlight providing energy to cause the reaction.
On dumps of burnt ore and on furnace bricks schuetteite forms beneath the surface and a different reaction is
required. In these places it appears to result from the action of strongly acid sulphate waters on
metallic mercury. This reaction requires higher acidity and more strongly
oxidising conditions than are normally met in nature; in those natural environments where such conditions might
occur, mercury generally is present as a sulphide rather than as the native
element. It therefore seems unlikely that mercury deposits have anywhere
developed the conditions that lead to the formation of schuetteite in this way.
(AM 44.1026-1038).
Localities
At the type locality, the Oceanic Mine, Cambria, Cambria-Oceanic Mining District, Santa Lucia Mts, San Luis Obispo
County, California, USA, schuetteite has been found as yellow thin films, as a recently formed
secondary mineral in the
mercury deposit, typically formed on
cinnabar exposed to sunlight
(Mindat).
Schuetteite from the Oceanic Mine -
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