Aug 22. Abundance of the Elements

The most abundant element in the silicate Earth is oxygen. In fact, it’s not much of an exaggeration to say that the Earth is a closest-packed array of O atoms. The other atoms squeeze in the spaces between them.

The tables give some determinations of the cosmic abundance of elements (Table 2-1), determined largely by spectroscopic studies of the Sun. Table 2-2 gives a simple Earth model based on those cosmic abundances. Table 2-3 shows some estimates of the composition of the continental crust. Those require knowing the relative abundance of the various rock types that make up the crust.

Download the tables.

Geology 310 © Theodore C. Labotka 2014