Element Abundances in the Lithosphere

This table shows the element abundances in the lithosphere. The earth crust has a thickness of about 35 to 40 km at the continents. The most abundant elements are oxygen (60,4%), silicon (20,4%) and aluminium (6,3%), followed by hydrogen (2,9%), sodium (2,6%), calcium (1,9%), iron (1,9%), magnesium (1,8%), potassium (1,4%), and titanium (0,2%).

These ten elements comprise 99,8% of the lithosphere. If the elements are ordered by the abundance relative to their weight one obtains a different ordering: Oxygen (46,6%), silicon (27%) and aluminium (8%) are still the most abundant elements. But they are now followed by iron (6%), magnesium (4%), calcium (2,4%), potassium (2,3%), and sodium (2,1%).

Below you find a table of element abundances given in ppm (ppm = parts per million).

Z	Name	Abundance in ppm
1	Hydrogen	1520
2	Helium	0.008
3	Lithium	20
4	Beryllium	2.6
5	Boron	10
6	Carbon	480
7	Nitrogen	25
8	Oxygen	474000
9	Fluorine	950
10	Neon	7 x 10^-5
11	Sodium	23000
12	Magnesium	23000
13	Aluminium	82000
14	Silicon	277000
15	Phosphorus	1000
16	Sulfur	260
17	Chlorine	130
18	Argon	1.2
19	Potassium	21000
20	Calcium	41000
21	Scandium	16
22	Titanium	5600
23	Vanadium	160
24	Chromium	100
25	Manganese	950
26	Iron	41000
27	Cobalt	20
28	Nickel	80
29	Copper	50
30	Zinc	75
31	Gallium	18
32	Germanium	1.8
33	Arsenic	1.5
34	Selenium	0.05
35	Bromine	0.37
36	Krypton	1 x 10^-5
37	Rubidium	90
38	Strontium	370
39	Yttrium	30
40	Zirconium	190
41	Niobium	20
42	Molybdenum	1.5
43	Technetium	7 x 10^-4
44	Ruthenium	0.001
45	Rhodium	2 x 10^-4
46	Palladium	6 x 10^-4
47	Silver	0.07
48	Cadmium	0.11
49	Indium	0.049
50	Tin	2.2
51	Antimony	0.2
52	Tellurium	0.005
53	Iodine	0.14
54	Xenon	2 x 10^-6
55	Caesium	3
56	Barium	500
57	Lanthanum	32
58	Cerium	68
59	Praseodymium	9.5
60	Neodymium	38
61	Promethium	small traces
62	Samarium	7.9
63	Europium	2.1
64	Gadolinium	7.7
65	Terbium	1.1
66	Dysprosium	6
67	Holmium	1.4
68	Erbium	3.8
69	Thulium	0.48
70	Ytterbium	5.3
71	Lutetium	0.51
72	Hafnium	3.3
73	Tantalum	2
74	Tungsten	1
75	Rhenium	4 x 10^-4
76	Osmium	1 x 10^-4
77	Iridium	3 x 10^-6
78	Platinum	0.001
79	Gold	0.0011
80	Mercury	0.05
81	Thallium	0.6
82	Lead	14
83	Bismuth	0.048
84	Polonium	small traces
85	Astatine	small traces
86	Radon	small traces
87	Francium	0
88	Radium	6 x 10^-7
89	Actinium	small traces
90	Thorium	12
91	Protactinium	small traces
92	Uranium	2.4
93	Neptunium	0
94	Plutonium	small traces
95	Americium	0
96	Curium	0
97	Berkelium	0
98	Californium	0
99	Einsteinium	0
100	Fermium	0
101	Mendelevium	0
102	Nobelium	0
103	Lawrencium	0
104	Rutherfordium	0
105	Dubnium	0
106	Seaborgium	0
107	Bohrium	0
108	Hassium	0
109	Meitnerium	0
110	Unnunnilium	0
111	Unnununium	0