Wattersite is a rare mercury

chromate Chromate or chromat, and their derived terms, may refer to: Chemistry * Chromate and dichromate, ions * Monochromate, an ion * Trichromate, an ion * Tetrachromate, an ion * Chromate conversion coating, a method for passivating metals Biology ...

mineral with the formula Hg⁺¹₄ Hg⁺² Cr⁺⁶ O₆. It occurs in association with

native mercury Mercury is a chemical element with the symbol Hg and atomic number 80. It is also known as quicksilver and was formerly named hydrargyrum ( ) from the Greek words, ''hydor'' (water) and ''argyros'' (silver). A heavy, silvery d-block element, me ...

and

cinnabar Cinnabar (), or cinnabarite (), from the grc, κιννάβαρι (), is the bright scarlet to brick-red form of mercury(II) sulfide (HgS). It is the most common source ore for refining elemental mercury and is the historic source for the bri ...

in a hydrothermally altered

serpentinite Serpentinite is a rock composed predominantly of one or more serpentine group minerals, the name originating from the similarity of the texture of the rock to that of the skin of a snake. Serpentinite has been called ''serpentine'' or ''serp ...

.Handbook of Mineralogy
/ref> It was first described from Clear Creek claim,

San Benito County San Benito County (; ''San Benito'', Spanish for "St. Benedict"), officially the County of San Benito, is a county located in the Coast Range Mountains of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 64,209. The cou ...

, California, USA in 1961. It was named to honor Californian mineral collector Lucius "Lu" Watters.

References

{{reflist Oxide minerals Mercury minerals Chromium minerals Monoclinic minerals Minerals in space group 15