Abundance of elements in Earth's crust

The abundance of elements in Earth's crust is shown in tabulated form with the estimated crustal abundance for each chemical element shown as mg/kg, or parts per million (ppm) by mass (10,000 ppm = 1%).

Abundance (atom fraction) of the chemical elements in Earth's upper continental crust as a function of atomic number. The rarest elements in the crust (shown in yellow) are not the heaviest, but are rather the siderophile (iron-loving) elements in the Goldschmidt classification of elements. These have been depleted by being relocated deeper into the Earth's core. Their abundance in meteoroids is higher. Tellurium and selenium are concentrated as sulfides in the core and have also been depleted by preaccretional sorting in the nebula that caused them to form volatile hydrogen selenide and hydrogen telluride.[1]

Estimates of elemental abundance are difficult because (a) the composition of the upper and lower crust are quite different, and (b) the composition of the continental crust can vary drastically by locality.[2]

Abundance of chemical elements in Earth's (continental) crust, according to various sources

Rank	Z	Element	Symbol	Abundance in crust (ppm) by source					Annual production
				Darling[3]	Barbalace[4]	WebElements[5]	Israel Science and Technology[6]	CRC[7]	(2016, tonnes)[8]
1	8	oxygen	O	466,000	474,000	460,000	467,100	461,000 (46.1%)
2	14	silicon	Si	277,200	277,100	270,000	276,900	282,000 (28.2%)	7,200,000
3	13	aluminium	Al	81,300	82,000	82,000	80,700	82,300 (8.23%)	57,600,000
4	26	iron	Fe	50,000	41,000	63,000	50,500	56,300 (5.63%)	1,150,000,000
5	20	calcium	Ca	36,300	41,000	50,000	36,500	41,500 (4.15%)
6	11	sodium	Na	28,300	23,000	23,000	27,500	23,600 (2.36%)	255,000,000
7	12	magnesium	Mg	20,900	23,000	29,000	20,800	23,300 (2.33%)	27,700,000
8	19	potassium	K	25,900	21,000	15,000	25,800	20,900 (2.09%)
9	22	titanium	Ti	4,400	5,600	6,600	6,200	5,650 (0.565%)	6,600,000
10	1	hydrogen	H	1,400		1,500	1,400	1,400 (0.14%)
11	15	phosphorus	P	1,200	1,000	1,000	1,300	1,050 (0.105%)
12	25	manganese	Mn	1,000	950	1,100	900	950 (0.095%)	16,000,000
13	9	fluorine	F	800	950	540	290	585 (0.0585%)
14	56	barium	Ba	500	340	340	500	425 (0.0425%)
15	38	strontium	Sr		370	360		370 (0.037%)	350,000
16	16	sulfur	S	500	260	420	520	350 (0.035%)	69,300,000
17	6	carbon	C	300	480	1,800	940	200 (0.02%)
18	40	zirconium	Zr		190	130	250	165 (0.0165%)	1,460,000
19	17	chlorine	Cl	500	130	170	450	145 (0.0145%)
20	23	vanadium	V	100	160	190		120 (0.012%)	76,000
21	24	chromium	Cr	100	100	140	350	102 (0.0102%)	26,000,000
22	37	rubidium	Rb	300	90	60		90
23	28	nickel	Ni		80	90	190	84	2,250,000
24	30	zinc	Zn		75	79		70	11,900,000
25	29	copper	Cu	100	50	68		60	19,400,000
26	58	cerium	Ce		68	60		66.5
27	60	neodymium	Nd		38	33		41.5
28	57	lanthanum	La		32	34		39
29	39	yttrium	Y		30	29		33	6,000
30	7	nitrogen	N	50	25	20		19	140,000,000
31	27	cobalt	Co		20	30		25	123,000
32	21	scandium	Sc		16	26		22
33	3	lithium	Li		20	17		20	35,000
34	41	niobium	Nb		20	17		20	64,000
35	31	gallium	Ga		18	19		19	315
36	82	lead	Pb		14	10		14	4,820,000
37	5	boron	B		950	8.7		10	9,400,000
38	90	thorium	Th		12	6		9.6
39	59	praseodymium	Pr		9.5	8.7		9.2
40	62	samarium	Sm		7.9	6		7.05
41	64	gadolinium	Gd		7.7	5.2		6.2
42	66	dysprosium	Dy		6	6.2		5.2
43	68	erbium	Er		3.8	3.0		3.5
44	18	argon	Ar					3.5
45	70	ytterbium	Yb		3.3	2.8		3.2
46	72	hafnium	Hf		5.3	3.3		3.0
47	55	caesium	Cs		3	1.9		3
48	4	beryllium	Be		2.6	1.9		2.8	220
49	92	uranium	U		0	1.8		2.7	74,119
50	35	bromine	Br		0.3700	3		2.4	391,000
51	50	tin	Sn	0	2.2	2.2		2.3	280,000
52	73	tantalum	Ta		2	1.7		2.0	1,100
53	63	europium	Eu		2.1	1.8		2.0
54	33	arsenic	As		1.5	2.1		1.8	36,500
55	32	germanium	Ge		1.8	1.4		1.5	155
56	74	tungsten	W		160.6	1.1		1.25	86,400
57	67	holmium	Ho		1.4	1.2		1.3
58	42	molybdenum	Mo		1.5	1.1		1.2	227,000
59	65	terbium	Tb		1.1	0.9400		1.2
60	81	thallium	Tl		0.6000	0.5300		0.85	10
61	71	lutetium	Lu					0.8
62	69	thulium	Tm		0.4800	0.4500		0.52
63	53	iodine	I		0.1400	0.4900		0.45	31,600
64	49	indium	In		0.0490	0.1600		0.25	655
65	51	antimony	Sb		0.2000	0.2000		0.2	130,000
66	48	cadmium	Cd		0.1100	0.1500		0.15	23,000
67	80	mercury	Hg		0.0500	0.0670		0.085	4,500
68	47	silver	Ag		0.0700	0.0800		0.075	27,000
69	34	selenium	Se		0.0500	0.0500		0.05	2,200
70	46	palladium	Pd		0.0006	0.0063		0.015	208
71	83	bismuth	Bi		0.0480	0.0250		0.0085	10,200
72	2	helium	He					0.008
73	10	neon	Ne					0.0051
74	78	platinum	Pt		0.0030	0.0037		0.005	172
75	79	gold	Au		0.0011	0.0031		0.004	3,100
76	76	osmium	Os		0.0001	0.0018		0.0015
77	52	tellurium	Te		0.0050	0.0010		0.001	2,200
78	44	ruthenium	Ru		0.0010	0.0010		0.001
79	77	iridium	Ir		0.0003	0.0004		0.001
80	45	rhodium	Rh		0.0002	0.0007		0.001
81	75	rhenium	Re		0.0004	0.0026		0.0007	47.2
82	36	krypton	Kr					0.0001
83	54	xenon	Xe					0.00003
84	91	protactinium	Pa					0.0000014
85	88	radium	Ra					0.0000009
86	84	polonium	Po					0.0000000002
87	94	plutonium	Pu					0.00000000003
88	93	neptunium	Np					0.000000000003
89	43	technetium	Tc					0.00000000000135
90	89	actinium	Ac					0.0000000000006
91	86	radon	Rn					0.0000000000004
92	61	promethium	Pm					0.00000000000000002
93	87	francium	Fr					0.000000000000000001
94	85	astatine	At					0.00000000000000000003

See also

• Abundances of the elements (data page)
• Atmospheric chemistry
• Clarke number — lists of historical data and terminology
• List of chemical elements
• Primordial nuclide

References

1. Anderson, Don L.; "Chemical Composition of the Mantle", Theory of the Earth, pp. 147-175 ISBN 0865421234
2. David Kring, Composition of Earth's continental crust as inferred from the compositions of impact melt sheets, Lunar and Planetary Science XXVIII
3. "Elements, Terrestrial Abundance". www.daviddarling.info. Archived from the original on 10 April 2007. Retrieved 2007-04-14.
4. Barbalace, Kenneth. "Periodic Table of Elements". Environmental Chemistry.com. Retrieved 2007-04-14.
5. "Abundance in Earth's Crust". WebElements.com. Archived from the original on 9 March 2007. Retrieved 2007-04-14.
6. "List of Periodic Table Elements Sorted by Abundance in Earth's crust". Israel Science and Technology Homepage. Retrieved 2007-04-15.
7. ABUNDANCE OF ELEMENTS IN THE EARTH’S CRUST AND IN THE SEA, CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 97th edition (2016–2017), p. 14-17
8. Commodity Statistics and Information. USGS. All production numbers are for mines, except for Al, Cd, Fe, Ge, In, N, Se (plants, refineries), S (all forms) and As, Br, Mg, Si (unspecified). Data for B, K, Ti, Y are given not for the pure element but for the most common oxide, data for Na and Cl are for NaCl. For many elements like Si, Al, data are ambiguous (many forms produced) and are taken for the pure element. U data is pure element required for consumption by current reactor fleet . WNA.

• BookRags, Periodic Table.
• World Book Encyclopedia, Exploring Earth.
• HyperPhysics, Georgia State University, Abundance of Elements in Earth's Crust.
• Data Series 140, Historical Statistics for Mineral and Material Commodities in the United States, Version 2011, USGS .
• Eric Scerri, The Periodic Table, Its Story and Its Significance, Oxford University Press, 2007