Most Abundant Elements in Earth's Crust

About This Dataset

This chart ranks the ten most abundant chemical elements in Earth's continental crust, measured as a percentage of the crust's total mass. Just two elements, oxygen and silicon, account for roughly three-quarters of everything beneath our feet.

✨ AI Insight

Oxygen dominates Earth's crust at 46.1% by mass, and together with silicon (28.2%) the two elements make up about 74% of the entire crust. This reflects the crust's silicate-mineral chemistry, where oxygen bonds with silicon and metals to form rock. Aluminium (8.23%) and iron (5.63%) are the most abundant metals, followed by calcium, sodium, magnesium and potassium, each between 2% and 4%. There is a sharp drop after potassium: titanium falls to 0.565% and hydrogen to just 0.14%. The top eight elements alone account for over 99% of the crust by mass, showing how few elements build almost all common rocks and minerals.

Source: CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics

Key Findings

Auto-computed highlights from this dataset

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Oxygen leads with 46 in All Time.

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Average value in All Time: 10 · median: 3.

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Gap in All Time: Oxygen is 329.3× larger than Hydrogen.