Is there mercury on Mercury? Options

[Guest_Enceladus75_*]

This may sound like a completely stupid and whimsical question, or else give the UMSF food for thought. But does anyone know if there has been any work done on estimating the abundances of metals on Mercury, and with this in mind, in particular I'm wondering if planet Mercury's namesake element, the liquid metal mercury, could exist as an ore in the crust of Mercury?

I guess this speculation is pretty fanciful, but could it be possible for Mercury to contain its namesake metal?

And leading on from that, could Mercury, Mars or Venus contain precious metals such as silver, gold or platinum worth mining in commercial quantities eventually? Or can such metals only be created in sufficient concentrations on Earth only, due to its plate tectonics?

[Guest_Enceladus75_*]

Emily...that's great food for thought. I'm afraid my detailed geology knowledge only goes to 2nd year university level, and my chemistry to just first year college (I'm a "major" in Geography). But I do try to keep up on reading on the subject of planetary geology and the evolution of the planets in a geochemical context. I'm fascinated by planetary geology, and I was just thinking this evening about the possibility of commercially available ores on other terrestrial bodies in the solar system. I've suspected that Mars may harbour a substantial amount of iron ore, but maybe that's just wishful thinking given the highly oxidised iron rich surface of the planet which we've known since the Viking missions of the mid 1970s. Time will tell.

Of course, at Mercury's temperature, mercury the element would likely be vapourised, but cinnebar, the mercury bearing ore, could potentially be found in its crust. I would agree with your belief that Earth probably is the best location for purer ores, given its dynamic geology, plate tectonics and atmospheric action, but I suspect that Venus is still almost certainly geologically active, and the Magellan mission detected probable concentrations of metals on its higest mountain peaks, like possibly tellurium, so I suppose we won't know for sure until we do a more thorough exploration. And although mercury the element may be a sulphur loving element, we know it didn't all go into Earth's mantle and core as evidenced by its relative abundance in the upper crust.

I just think that it would be sort of cool and ironic if mercury was detected on its namesake planet, Mercury.

Why do the popular science books go on and on about the potential of the asteroids as a future source of important metals all the time? Surely, given their small size and relatively undifferenitated nature, they wouldn't be all that much of a souce of metals more likely found in greater abundance on the terrestrial planets?

[Marz]

Full quote of previous (long) post removed. - Mod

I think there are two reasons asteroids are cited as the 'low-hanging fruit' for mining:
1. the iron-nickel (M-class) are almost pure metal.
2. no gravity well; which means transferring the ore is about as easy as space-freight could get

There are two other classes of 'roids: Stony and Carbonaceous-chondrites, but both are considerably less dense than the M-class. Note that at least 1 'roid, Ceres, is almost certainly differentiated. Vesta might be as well, or perhaps a fragment from a body that once was.

Venus does have active volcanism, but as Emily pointed out, lacks water. It is thought that water acts as the Prime Mover for plate tectonics, so without it, hot spots in the crust are fixed in place. I also don't know much about how metal ores form, but Mercury is the most dense planet out there and likely had (has?) volcanism. I'd imagine it's very rich in iron and other heavier metals. Cinnabar is mercury-sulphide, and sulphides are common in volcanic deposits. So I'd think Mercury, Venus, and perhaps Io would show traces of it.