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The Earth's crust is one "reservoir" for measurements of abundance. A reservoir is any large body to be studied as unit, like the ocean, atmosphere, mantle or crust. Different reservoirs may have different relative amounts of each element due to different chemical or mechanical processes involved in the creation of the reservoir. [1]: 18
While Fe is highly abundant in the Earth's crust, [104] it is less common in oxygenated surface waters. Iron is a key micronutrient in primary productivity , [ 49 ] and a limiting nutrient in the Southern ocean, eastern equatorial Pacific, and the subarctic Pacific referred to as High-Nutrient, Low-Chlorophyll (HNLC) regions of the ocean.
More than 90% of the Earth's crust is composed of silicate minerals, making silicon the second most abundant element in the Earth's crust (about 28% by mass), after oxygen. Most silicon is used commercially without being separated, often with very little processing of the natural minerals.
Earth's crust is composed of 90% silicate minerals and their abundance in the Earth is as follows: plagioclase feldspar (39%), alkali feldspar (12%), quartz (12%), pyroxene (11%), amphiboles (5%), micas (5%), clay minerals (5%); the remaining silicate minerals make up another 3% of Earth's crust. Only 8% of the Earth is composed of non-silicate ...
The largest grouping of minerals by far are the silicates; most rocks are composed of greater than 95% silicate minerals, and over 90% of the Earth's crust is composed of these minerals. [102] The two main constituents of silicates are silicon and oxygen, which are the two most abundant elements in the Earth's crust.
While iron is the most abundant element on Earth, most of this iron is concentrated in the inner and outer cores. [43] [44] The fraction of iron that is in Earth's crust only amounts to about 5% of the overall mass of the crust and is thus only the fourth most abundant element in that layer (after oxygen, silicon, and aluminium). [45]
By far the largest reservoir of Earth's oxygen is within the silicate and oxide minerals of the crust and mantle (99.5% by weight). [6] The Earth's atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere together hold less than 0.05% of the Earth's total mass of oxygen.
Uranium ore deposits are economically recoverable concentrations of uranium within Earth's crust. Uranium is one of the most common elements in Earth's crust, being 40 times more common than silver and 500 times more common than gold. [1] It can be found almost everywhere in rock, soil, rivers, and oceans. [2]