Answer:
Step-by-step explanation:
The reactivity of group 12 elements decreases from zinc to mercury. The reduction potentials also become more positive from zinc to mercury.
Mercury has a positive reduction potential and is quite a noble metal.
Similarly, there is a large difference in first ionization energy between cadmium and mercury.
As a result of all these, zinc and cadmium are more reactive than mercury so they form a range of compounds obtained in nature which include; sulphides, carbonates, silicates and oxides while mercury's only common form is cinnabar.