Cinnabar w/ slickensides (Kay Robertson Coll.)

Item Description

A striking, highly unusual and rich mercury ore specimen from this old extinct well-known mine, discovered in 1853! The sawed and polished front reveals fascinating rich blood-red slickensided cinnabar, that was emplaced along a tear fault of the hydrothermally Hg-rich fluids injected into the indurated beds of the Cretaceous Panoche Formation beneath the New Idria thrust fault. Slickensides are a polished and striated rock surface that results from friction along a fault or bedding plane. Ex Kay Robertson Collection # 5205 and received as a gift from Helen H. in the late 1960s. Kay is a prominent California collector, who specialized in European classics (see the article in the March-April, 2007 Mineralogical Record and the 50+ page article in the German Magazine "Mineralien-Welt" November-December 2017). Very rich cinnabar veins on the sides of the hefty matrix are striking complements to this most exotic and rare specimen. Specimens are RARE and are seldom on the market from the New Idria Mine. The specimen probably dates to the active mining period of World War II. A MUST for the California or species collector.