Abundance of elements in Earth's crust

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..

The abundance of elements in Earth's crust is shown in tabulated form with the estimated crustal abundance for each chemical element shown as parts per million (ppm) by mass (10,000 ppm = 1%). Note that the noble gases are not included, as they form no part of the solid crust. Also not included are certain elements with extremely low crustal concentrations: technetium (atomic number 43), promethium (61), and all elements with atomic numbers greater than 83 except thorium (90) and uranium (92).

Abundance of chemical elements in Earth's crust, from various sources

Rank	Z	Element	Symbol	Abundance in crust (ppm) by source					Annual production
				Darling	Barbalace	WebElements	Israel Science and Technology	Jefferson Lab	(2016, tonnes)
1	8	oxygen	O	466,000	474,000	460,000	467,100	461,000
2	14	silicon	Si	277,200	277,100	270,000	276,900	282,000	7,200,000
3	13	aluminium	Al	81,300	82,000	82,000	80,700	82,300	57,600,000
4	26	iron	Fe	50,000	41,000	63,000	50,500	56,300	1,150,000,000
5	20	calcium	Ca	36,300	41,000	50,000	36,500	41,500
6	11	sodium	Na	28,300	23,000	23,000	27,500	23,600	255,000,000
7	12	magnesium	Mg	20,900	23,000	29,000	20,800	23,300	1,010,000
8	19	potassium	K	25,900	21,000	15,000	25,800	20,900
9	22	titanium	Ti	4,400	5,600	6,600	6,200	5,600	6,600,000
10	1	hydrogen	H	1,400		1,500	1,400	1,400
11	15	phosphorus	P	1,200	1,000	1,000	1,300	1,050
12	25	manganese	Mn	1,000	950	1,100	900	950	16,000,000
13	9	fluorine	F	800	950	540	290	585
14	56	barium	Ba	500	340	340	500	425
15	6	carbon	C	300	480	1,800	940	200
16	38	strontium	Sr		370	360		370	350,000
17	16	sulfur	S	500	260	420	520	350	69,300,000
18	40	zirconium	Zr		190	130	250	165	1,460,000
19	23	vanadium	V	100	160	190		120	76,000
20	17	chlorine	Cl	500	130	170	450	145
21	24	chromium	Cr	100	100	140	350	102	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	3	lithium	Li		20	17		20	35,000
33	41	niobium	Nb		20	17		20	64,000
34	31	gallium	Ga		18	19		19
35	21	scandium	Sc		16	26		22
36	82	lead	Pb		14	10		14	4,820,000
37	62	samarium	Sm		7.9	6		7.05
38	90	thorium	Th		12	6		9.6
39	59	praseodymium	Pr		9.5	8.7		9.2
40	5	boron	B		950	8.7		10	9,400,000
41	64	gadolinium	Gd		7.7	5.2		6.2
42	66	dysprosium	Dy		6	6.2		5.2
43	72	hafnium	Hf		5.3	3.3		3.0
44	68	erbium	Er		3.8	3.0		3.5
45	70	ytterbium	Yb		3.3	2.8		3.2
46	55	caesium	Cs		3	1.9		3
47	4	beryllium	Be		2.6	1.9		2.8	220
48	50	tin	Sn	0	2.2	2.2		2.3	280,000
49	63	europium	Eu		2.1	1.8		2.0
50	92	uranium	U		0	1.8		2.7	74,119
51	73	tantalum	Ta		2	1.7		2.0	1,100
52	32	germanium	Ge		1.8	1.4		1.5	155
53	74	tungsten	W		160.6	1.1		1.25	86,400
54	42	molybdenum	Mo		1.5	1.1		1.2	227,000
55	33	arsenic	As		1.5	2.1		1.8	36,500
56	67	holmium	Ho		1.4	1.2		1.3
57	65	terbium	Tb		1.1	0.9400		1.2
58	69	thulium	Tm		0.4800	0.4500		0.52
59	35	bromine	Br		0.3700	3		2.4	391,000
60	81	thallium	Tl		0.6000	0.5300		0.850	10
61	71	lutetium	Lu					0.5
62	51	antimony	Sb		0.2000	0.2000		0.2	130,000
63	53	iodine	I		0.1400	0.4900		0.450	31,600
64	48	cadmium	Cd		0.1100	0.1500		0.15	23,000
65	47	silver	Ag		0.0700	0.0800		0.075	27,000
66	80	mercury	Hg		0.0500	0.0670		0.085	4,500
67	34	selenium	Se		0.0500	0.0500		0.05	2,200
68	49	indium	In		0.0490	0.1600		0.250	655
69	83	bismuth	Bi		0.0480	0.0250		0.0085	10,200
70	52	tellurium	Te		0.0050	0.0010		0.001	2,200
71	78	platinum	Pt		0.0030	0.0037		0.005	172
72	79	gold	Au		0.0011	0.0031		0.004	3,100
73	44	ruthenium	Ru		0.0010	0.0010		0.001
74	46	palladium	Pd		0.0006	0.0063		0.015	208
75	75	rhenium	Re		0.0004	0.0026		0.0007	47.2
76	77	iridium	Ir		0.0003	0.0004		0.001
77	45	rhodium	Rh		0.0002	0.0007		0.001
78	76	osmium	Os		0.0001	0.0018		0.0015

See also

• Abundances of the elements (data page)
• Primordial nuclide
• List of chemical elements
• Atmospheric chemistry

References

• 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 [2].
• Eric Scerri, The Periodic Table, Its Story and Its Significance, Oxford University Press, 2007