What is "christite"

n. (context mineral English) A monoclinic-prismatic mineral containing arsenic, mercury, sulfur, and thallium.

Christite is a mineral with the chemical formula Tl Hg As S. It is named after Dr. Charles L. Christ, a member of the U.S. Geological Survey. It usually comes in a crimson red or bright orange color. It has a density of 6.2 and has a rating between 1 and 2 on Mohs Hardness Scale. Christite has an adamantine luster and leaves behind an orange streak. Its crystal system is monoclinic with possible crystal classes of twofold symmetry, mirror plane symmetry, and twofold with a mirror plane. This means it can have radial symmetry, mirror plane symmetry, or mirror plane symmetry perpendicular to the two-fold axis. It is an anisotropic mineral, which means that it exhibits different properties when measured in different directions. In plane polarized light, its color is golden yellow. It is birefringent, which means that it has two distinct indices of refraction. This can be seen when one looks through the microscope with both polars crossed and sees the mineral change colors when it is rotated.