Abundances of the elements (data page)

<< Chemical elements data references

Earth bulk continental crust and upper continental crust
Mass fraction, in kg/kg.
 * C1 &mdash; Crust: CRC Handbook
 * C2 &mdash; Crust: Kaye & Laby
 * C3 &mdash; Crust: Greenwood
 * C4 &mdash; Crust: Ahrens (Taylor)
 * C5 &mdash; Crust: Ahrens (Wänke)
 * C6 &mdash; Crust: Ahrens (Weaver)
 * U1 &mdash; Upper crust: Ahrens (Taylor)
 * U2 &mdash; Upper crust: Ahrens (Shaw)

Sea water
Mass per volume fraction, in kg/L.
 * W1 &mdash; CRC Handbook
 * W2 &mdash; Kaye & Laby

Sun and solar system
Atom mole fraction relative to silicon = 1.
 * S1 &mdash; Sun: Kaye & Laby
 * Y1 &mdash; Solar system: Kaye & Laby
 * Y2 &mdash; Solar system: Ahrens, with uncertainty s (%)

CRC Handbook
From these sources in an online version of David R. Lide (ed.), CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 85th Edition. CRC Press. Boca Raton, Florida (2005). Section 14, Geophysics, Astronomy, and Acoustics; Abundance of Elements in the Earth's Crust and in the Sea:
 * R.S. Carmichael (ed.), CRC Practical Handbook of Physical Properties of Rocks and Minerals, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, (1989).
 * I. Bodek et al., Environmental Inorganic Chemistry, Pergamon Press, New York, (1988).
 * A.B. Ronov, A.A. Yaroshevsky, Earth's Crust Geochemistry, in Encyclopedia of Geochemistry and Environmental Sciences, R.W. Fairbridge (ed.), Van Nostrand, New York, (1969).
 * Estimated abundance of the elements in the continental crust (C1) and in seawater near the surface (W1). The median values of reported measurements are given. Concentrations of the less abundant elements may vary with location by several orders of magnitude.

Kaye & Laby
National Physical Laboratory, Kaye and Laby Tables of Physical & Chemical Constants (2005). Section 3.1.3, Abundances of the elements, B.E.J. Pagel
 * Abundances in sea water (W2) and in crustal rocks (C2) from:
 * K.K. Turekian (1970) in McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, 4, 627.
 * For the sun (S1) and the solar system (Y1) from:
 * N. Grevesse, E. Anders, J. Waddington (ed.) in Cosmic Abundances of Matter, Amer. Inst. Phys., New York, p. 1. (1988).
 * Except solar iron abundance from:
 * H. Holweger, A. Bard, A. Kock, M. Kock, Astron. Astrophys., 249, 545. (1991).
 * Accuracy of the solar abundances varies between ± 10% and a factor of two, values more uncertain than that are marked with "about". The solar system abundances are mainly derived from carbonaceous chondrite meteorites and are assumed generally accurate to ± 10% or better. Solar system abundances based on other sources are marked with asterisks (*).

Greenwood
A. Earnshaw, N. Greenwood, Chemistry of the Elements, 2nd edition, Butterworth-Heinemann, (1997). ISBN 0-7506-3365-4 Appendix 4, Abundance of Elements in Crustal Rocks.
 * From this source with some modifications and additions of later data:
 * W.S. Fyfe, Geochemistry, Oxford University Press, (1974).
 * Further referring to:
 * C.K. Jorgensen, Comments Astrophys. 17, 49-101 (1993).
 * Values are subject to various geological assumptions but assumed acceptable as an indication of elemental abundance in crustal rocks (C3).

Ahrens
Thomas J. Ahrens (ed.), Global Earth Physics : A Handbook of Physical Constants, American Geophysical Union (1995). ISBN 0-87590-851-9 Composition of the Solar System, Planets, Meteorites, and Major Terrestrial Reservoirs, Horton E. Newsom. Tables 1, 14, 15.


 * Bulk continental crust (C4) and upper continental crust (U1) from:
 * S.R. Taylor, S.M. McLennan, The continental crust: Its composition and evolution, Blackwell Sci. Publ., Oxford, 330 pp. (1985).
 * Upper continental crust (U2) from:
 * D.M. Shaw, J. Dostal, R.R. Keays, Additional estimates of continental surface Precambrian shield composition in Canada, Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 40, 73-83, (1976).
 * Bulk continental crust (C5) from:
 * H. Wänke, G. Dreibus, E. Jagoutz, Mantle chemistry and accretion history of the Earth, in Archean Geochemistry, A. Kröner, G.N. Hanson, A.M. Goodwin (eds.), pp. l-24, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, (1984).
 * Bulk continental crust (C6) from:
 * B.L. Weaver, J. Tamey, Major and trace element composition of the continental lithosphere, in Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, 15, H.N. Pollack, V.R. Murthy (eds.) pp. 39-68, Pergamon, Oxford, (1984).
 * Solar system (Y2) from:
 * E. Anders, N. Grevesse, Abundances of the elements: Meteoritic and solar, Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 53, 197-214, (1989).