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Magnesium is a relatively abundant ion in Earth's crust and mantle and is highly bioavailable in the hydrosphere. This availability, in combination with a useful and very unusual chemistry, may have led to its utilization in evolution as an ion for signaling, enzyme activation, and catalysis .
Potassium in biology. Potassium is the main intracellular ion for all types of cells, while having a major role in maintenance of fluid and electrolyte balance. [1][2] Potassium is necessary for the function of all living cells and is thus present in all plant and animal tissues. It is found in especially high concentrations within plant cells ...
Magnesium is the eighth most abundant element on earth. It is the fourth most abundant element in vertebrates and the most abundant divalent cation within cells. The most available form of magnesium (Mg 2+) for living organisms can be found in the hydrosphere.
Potassium is the eighth or ninth most common element by mass (0.2%) in the human body, so that a 60 kg adult contains a total of about 120 g of potassium. [83] The body has about as much potassium as sulfur and chlorine, and only calcium and phosphorus are more abundant (with the exception of the ubiquitous CHON elements). [84]
Magnesium is the eighth most abundant element in the Earth's crust [13] and the fourth most common element in the Earth (after iron, oxygen and silicon), making up 13% of the planet's mass and a large fraction of the planet's mantle. It is the third most abundant element dissolved in seawater, after sodium and chlorine.
The abundance of the chemical elements is a measure of the occurrences of the chemical elements relative to all other elements in a given environment. Abundance is measured in one of three ways: by mass fraction (in commercial contexts often called weight fraction), by mole fraction (fraction of atoms by numerical count, or sometimes fraction of molecules in gases), or by volume fraction.
118 chemical elements are known to exist. All elements to element 94 are found in nature, and the remainder of the discovered elements are artificially produced, with isotopes all known to be highly radioactive with relatively short half-lives (see below). The elements in this list are ordered according to the lifetime of their most stable ...
Aluminum warrants special mention because it is the most abundant metal and the third most abundant element in the Earth's crust; [3] despite this, it is not essential for life. With this sole exception, the eight most highly abundant elements in the Earth's crust, making up over 90% of the crustal mass, [3] are also essential for life.