What are the 8 most abundant minerals on Earth?

skysmom65

Even though there are 92 elements that naturally occur, only eight of them are abundant in the rocks that make up the Earth’s outer layer, the crust. Together, these 8 elements account for 98.5% of the crust. The 8 most abundant elements in Earth’s crust (by mass): 46.6% Oxygen (O) 27.7% Silicon (Si) 8.1% Aluminum (Al) 5.0% Iron (Fe) 3.6% Calcium (Ca) 2.8% Sodium (Na) 2.6% Potassium (K) 2.1% Magnesium (Mg) Jan 19 07, 3:39 PM

What-A-Mess

Oxygen = Element not Mineral. "To be classified as a "true" mineral, a substance must be a solid and have a crystal structure. It must also be an inorganic, naturally-occurring, homogeneous substance with a defined chemical composition." "From a computation based on 1672 analyses of all kinds of rocks Clarke arrived at the following as the average percentage composition: SiO2=59.71, Al2O3=15.41, Fe2O3=2.63, FeO=3.52, MgO=4.36, CaO=4.90, Na2O=3.55, K2O=2.80, H2O=1.52, TiO2=0.60, P2O5=0.22, (total 99.22%). All the other constituents occur only in very small quantities, usually much less than 1%[1] H20 not a mineral. The three most abundant elements in the crust, in order of abundance, are 1. O - oxygen (not a mineral) 2. Si - silicon 3. Al - aluminum The other five most abundant element in the crust are * Fe - iron * Mg - magnesium * Ca - calcium * K - potassium * Na - sodium Jan 19 07, 7:07 PM

What-A-Mess

For above.... http://www.laniainakai.com/geology/files/geology_notes/minerals.html http://www.laniainakai.com/geology/files/geology_notes/minerals.html Jan 19 07, 7:08 PM