Mercury (Hg) mineral evolution: A mineralogical record of supercontinent assembly, changing ocean geochemistry, and the emerging terrestrial biosphere

abstRact Analyses of the temporal and geographic distribution of earliest recorded appearances of the 88 IMA-approved mercury minerals plus two potentially valid species exemplify principles of mineral evolution. Metacinnabar (HgS) and native Hg are the only two species reported from meteorites, specifically, the primitive H3 Tieschitz chondrite with an age of 4550 Ma. Since the first terrestrial appearance of cinnabar more than 3 billion years ago, mercury minerals have been present continu-ously at or near Earth’s surface. Mercury mineral evolution is characterized by episodic deposition and diversification, perhaps associated with the supercontinent cycle. We observe statistically significant increases in the number of reported Hg mineral localities and new Hg species at ~2.8–2.6, ~1.9–1.8, and ~0.43–0.25 Ga— intervals that correlate with episodes of presumed supercontinent assembly and associated orogenies of Kenorland (Superia), Columbia (Nuna), and Pangea, respectively. In constrast, few Hg deposits or new species of mercury minerals are reported from the intervals of supercontinent stability and breakup at ~2.5–1.9, ~1.8–1.2, and 1.1–0.8 Ga. The interval of Pangean supercontinent stability and breakup (~250–65 Ma) is also marked by a significant decline in reported mercury mineralization; however