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Home Minerals Sulfur

Sulfur

Chemical element. Native mineral. Essential to all living things.

Sulfur terminal: Piles of yellow sulfur at a terminal near Vancouver, British Columbia,
Canada. The sulfur is brought by rail from oil and natural gas processing facilities in the
Province of Alberta. At this terminal it is loaded onto barges and ships for bulk transport.
Photo iStockphoto / teekaygee.

Sulfur fumarole: As hot volcanic gases, rich in sulfur, escape from a volcanic vent, the gases cool and
sulfur is deposited as yellow crystals around the vent. This fumarole on the island of Kunashir (in the Kuril
Islands, northeast of the Japanese island of Hokkaido) has a significant accumulation of bright yellow sulfur.
Photo iStockphoto / Sergey Dubrovskiy.
 Did You Know? Many strong odors are produced
by sulfur compounds. The smell of skunks,
matches, garlic, grapefruit, and rotten eggs are
caused by sulfur. Image iStockphoto / Florintt,
Gio_banfi, Abomb Industries Design, ivelly, and
Big_Ryan.

What is Sulfur?
Sulfur is a chemical element with an atomic number of 16 and an atomic symbol of S. At
room temperature it is a yellow crystalline solid. Even though it is insoluble in water, it is one
of the most versatile elements at forming compounds. Sulfur reacts and forms compounds
with all elements except gold, iodine, iridium, nitrogen, platinum, tellurium, and the inert
gases.

Sulfur is abundant and occurs throughout the Universe, but it is rarely found in a pure,
uncombined form at Earth's surface. As an element, sulfur is an important constituent of
sulfate and sulfide minerals. It occurs in the dissolved ions of many waters. It is an important
constituent of many atmospheric, subsurface, and dissolved gases. It is an essential element in
all living things and is in the organic molecules of all fossil fuels.

Did You Know? The Chinese discovered sulfur in

about 2000 BC, used it to make gunpowder in the
7th century, and used gunpowder to launch rockets,
shoot projectiles, and make hand grenades in the
10th century.

Physical Properties of Sulfur

Chemical
Native element
Classification
Yellow. Brownish yellow to greenish yellow. Red when molten at over 200
Color degrees Celsius. Burns with a flame that can be difficult to see in daylight
but is blue in the dark.
Streak Yellow
Luster Crystals are resinous to greasy. Powdered sulfur is dull or earthy.
Diaphaneity Transparent to translucent
Cleavage None
Mohs Hardness 1.5 to 2.5
Specific Gravity 2.0 to 2.1
Diagnostic Yellow color, low hardness, low specific gravity, extremely flammable
Properties burning with a blue flame, low melting temperature
Chemical
S
Composition
Crystal System Orthorhombic
About 90% is used to manufacture sulfuric acid. The remainder is used in a
variety of products that include hydrogen sulfide, insecticides, herbicides,
Uses
fungicides, pharmaceuticals, soaps, textiles, papers, processed rubber,
gunpowder, leather, paint, dyes, food preservatives.

World Sulfur Production: During 2015, an estimated 70 million metric tons of sulfur was
produced worldwide. The production was widely divided among a large number of countries.
The top 12 producing countries were China, the United States, Russia, Canada, Germany,
Japan, Saudi Arabia, India, Kazakhstan, Iran, United Arab Emirates, and Mexico. These
countries are where the sulfur was separated from its geologic source material rather than the
original source of the sulfur, since most sulfur is separated when fossil fuels are processed or
sulfide ores are smelted. Data from the United States Geological Survey. [7]

Sulfur is Abundant and Everywhere!

The information below should convince you that sulfur is extremely abundant and present
everywhere.

11th most abundant element in the human body [1]

6th most abundant element in seawater [2]
14th most abundant element in Earths crust [3]
9th most abundant element in the entire Earth [4]
10th most abundant element in the solar system [5]
10th most abundant element in the Universe [6]
Sulfur Crystals: Bright yellow sulfur crystal group showing the mineral's characteristic
orthorhombic crystal habit and resinous luster. Specimen measures approximately 7.3 x 6.6 x
5.3 centimeters in size and was collected from the Agrigento Province, Sicily, Italy. Specimen
and photo by Arkenstone / www.iRocks.com.
Burning sulfur: Pieces of sulfur burning in daylight and in the dark. Photo by Johannes
'volty' Hemmerlein, used here under a GNU Free Documentation License.

Did You Know? Jupiter's moon, Io, has over 400

active volcanoes that emit enormous amounts of
sulfur - so much sulfur that the moon has a
yellowish color.
The best way to learn about minerals is to study with a collection of small specimens that you
can handle, examine, and observe their properties. Inexpensive mineral collections are
available in the Geology.com Store.

Sulfur or "Sulphur"?
The name "sulphur" has been used in the United Kingdom and throughout the British Empire for hundreds of
years. "Sulfur" is the spelling used in common and scientific communication in the United States. In 1990 the
International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry designated "sulfur" as the preferred spelling. How the word
is spelled can often reveal the age and origin of publications and authors.

Information Sources

[1] What Elements Are Found in the Human Body? Article in the Building Blocks of Life
section of the Arizona School of Life Sciences website, accessed November 2016.

[2] Periodic Table of Elements in the Ocean, article on the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research
Institute website, accessed November 2016.

[3] List of Periodic Table Elements Sorted by Abundance in Earth's Crust, article on the Israel
Science and Technology website, accessed November 2016.

[4] The Composition of the Earth, by William F. McDonough, Chapter 1 in Earthquake

Thermodynamics and Phase Transformations in the Earths Interior, manuscript on the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology website, accessed November 2016.

[5] Solar System Abundances and Condensation Temperatures of the Elements by Katharina
Lodders, article published on The Astrophysical Journal website, accessed November 2016.

[6] Abundance in the Universe of the Elements, article on the PeriodicTable.com website,
accessed November 2016.

[7] Sulfur, by Lori E. Apodaca, United States Geological Survey, Mineral Commodity
Summaries, 2016.

[8] The International Mineralogical Association Database of Mineral Properties, an online

database of minerals along with their chemical and physical properties that can be queried and
sorted by anyone with internet access.

Sulfur as a Native Element Mineral

As a mineral, sulfur is a bright yellow crystalline material. It forms near volcanic vents and
fumaroles, where it sublimates from a stream of hot gases. Small amounts of native sulfur
also form during the weathering of sulfate and sulfide minerals.

The largest accumulations of mineral sulfur are found in the subsurface. Many of these are in
fractures and cavities associated with sulfide ore mineralization. The largest are associated
with evaporite minerals, where gypsum and anhydrite yield native sulfur as a product of
bacterial action. Significant amounts of sulfur have been produced from the cap rock of salt
domes but this type of production is rarely done today.

Minerals That Contain Sulfur

According to the International Mineralogical Association's database, over 1000 minerals contain sulfur as an
essential part of their composition. [8] This is a result of sulfur's ability to form compounds with all but a few
other elements. The tables below list a small number of sulfide, sulfarsenide, sulfosalt and sulfate minerals.
Many of the most common sulfur minerals are included in the list, but the list is not intended to be complete.

Sulfide Minerals:
Mineral Composition
Acanthite Ag2S
Chalcocite Cu2S
Bornite Cu5FeS4
Galena PbS
Sphalerite ZnS
Chalcopyrite CuFeS2
Pyrrhotite Fe1-xS
Millerite NiS
Pentlandite (Fe,Ni)9S8
Covellite CuS
Cinnabar HgS
Realgar AsS
Orpiment As2S3
Stibnite Sb2S3
Pyrite FeS2
Marcasite FeS2
Molybdenite MoS2

Sulfarsenide Minerals:
Mineral Composition
Cobaltite (Co,Fe)AsS
Arsenopyrite FeAsS
Gersdorffite NiAsS

Sulfosalt Minerals:
Mineral Composition
Pyrargyrite Ag3SbS3
Proustite Ag3AsS3
Tetrahedrite Cu12Sb4S13
Tennantite Cu12As4S13
Enargite Cu3AsS4
 Bournonite PbCuSbS3
Jamesonite Pb4FeSb6S14
Cylindrite Pb3Sn4FeSb2S14

Anhydrous Sulfate Minerals:

Mineral Composition
Barite BaSO4
Celestite SrSO4
Anglesite PbSO4
Anhydrite CaSO4
Hanksite Na22K(SO4)9(CO3)2Cl

Hydroxide and Hydrous Sulfate Minerals:

Mineral Composition
Gypsum CaSO42H2O
Chalcanthite CuSO45H2O
Kieserite MgSO4H2O
Starkeyite MgSO44H2O
Hexahydrite MgSO46H2O
Epsomite MgSO47H2O
Meridianiite MgSO411H2O
Melanterite FeSO47H2O
Antlerite Cu3SO4(OH)4
Brochantite Cu4SO4(OH)6
Alunite KAl3(SO4)2(OH)6
Jarosite KFe3(SO4)2(OH)6

Contributor: Hobart King

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