How to increase the availability and quantity of Mercury on an Earth-like planet?

According to this list mercury only makes up 6.7×10^-6 % of the Earth's crust (by mass, I believe; though even if it's by number of atoms it's still tiny).

I'd like to make mercury sufficiently common on the surface of my world (relatively Earth-like, in the habitable zone, large liquid water oceans, feel free to assume anything else) so that the planet's ecosystem can (or rather has little choice but to) incorporate it into its biochemistry.

The percentage of the crust (by mass) that I am currently trying for (though if this is very implausible I am open to answers that aim for something more reasonable) is about 0.001%. Compared to Earth that's about 3 orders of magnitude more abundant.

I don't really mind in what form the mercury exists in, so long as it's fairly easy to extract pure elemental mercury out of it (cinnabar for example). However I would greatly appreciate answers that made it possible for pools/small puddles of quicksilver to form on the ground, even infrequently.

So my question is: what (natural) conditions could explain/permit a relatively Earth-like planet with high amounts of mercury in its crust?

posted about 7 years ago

AngelPray‭

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