Period 6 element deposited later by meteorites which contained the element. This supposedly explains why, in prehistory, gold appeared as nuggets on the earth's surface. Mercury is a chemical element with the symbol Hg and atomic number 80. It is also known as quicksilver or hydrargyrum ( < Greek "" "water" and "" "silver"). A heavy, silvery d-block element, mercury is the only metal that is liquid at standard conditions for temperature and pressure; the only other element that is liquid under these conditions is bromine, though metals such as caesium, francium, gallium, and rubidium melt just above room temperature. With a freezing
Heavy metals completely settled. In biochemistry, heavy metals are sometimes defined—on the basis of the Lewis acid (electronic pair acceptor) behaviour of their ions in aqueous solution—as class B and borderline metals. In this scheme, class A metal ions prefer oxygen donors; class B ions prefer nitrogen or sulfur donors; and borderline or ambivalent ions show either class A or B characteristics, depending on the circumstances. Class A metals, which tend to have low electronegativity and form bonds with large ionic character, are the alkali and alkaline earths, aluminium, the group 3 metals, and the lanthanides and actinides. Class B metals, which