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Elements in the Earth’s crust provide all the basic building blocks for mankind.
But even though the crust is the source of everything we find, mine, refine, and build, it really is just scratching the surface of our planet.
After all, the innermost layer of the Earth, the core, represents 15% of the planet’s volume, whereas the mantle occupies 84%. Representing the remaining 1% is the crust, a thin layer that ranges in depth from approximately 5-70 km (~3-44 miles).
This infographic takes a look at what elements make up this 1%, based on data from WorldAtlas.
Earth’s Crust Elements
The crust is a rigid surface containing both the oceans and landmasses. Most elements are found in only trace amounts within the Earth’s crust, but several are abundant.
The Earth’s crust comprises about 95% igneous and metamorphic rocks, 4% shale, 0.75% sandstone, and 0.25% limestone.
Oxygen, silicon, aluminum, and iron account for 88.1% of the mass of the Earth’s crust, while another 90 elements make up the remaining 11.9%.
Rank Element % of Earth's Crust
1 Oxygen (O) 46.1%
2 Silicon (Si) 28.2%
3 Aluminum (Al) 8.2%
4 Iron (Fe) 5.6%
5 Calcium (Ca) 4.1%
6 Sodium (Na) 2.3%
7 Magnesium (Mg) 2.3%
8 Potassium (K) 2.0%
9 Titanium (Ti) 0.5%
10 Hydrogen (H) 0.1%
Other elements 0.5%
Total 100.0%
While gold, silver, copper and other base and precious metals are among the most sought after elements, together they make up less than 0.03% of the Earth’s crust by mass.
#1: Oxygen
Oxygen is by far the most abundant element in the Earth’s crust, making up 46% of mass—coming up just short of half of the total.
Oxygen is a highly reactive element that combines with other elements, forming oxides. Some examples of common oxides are minerals such as granite and quartz (oxides of silicon), rust (oxides of iron), and limestone (oxide of calcium and carbon).
#2: Silicon
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.
Silicon links up with oxygen to form the most common minerals on Earth. For example, in most places, sand primarily consists of silica (silicon dioxide) usually in the form of quartz. Silicon is an essential semiconductor, used in manufacturing electronics and computer chips.
#3: Aluminum
Aluminum is the third most common element in the Earth’s crust.
Because of its strong affinity for oxygen, aluminum is rarely found in its elemental state. Aluminum oxide (Al2O3), aluminum hydroxide (Al(OH)3) and potassium aluminum sulphate (KAl(SO4)2) are common aluminum compounds.
Aluminum and aluminum alloys have a variety of uses, from kitchen foil to rocket manufacturing.
#4: Iron
The fourth most common element in the Earth’s crust is iron, accounting for over 5% of the mass of the Earth’s crust.
Iron is obtained chiefly from the minerals hematite and magnetite. Of all the metals we mine, over 90% is iron, mainly to make steel, an alloy of carbon and iron. Iron is also an essential nutrient in the human body.
#5: Calcium
Calcium makes up about 4.2% of the planet’s crust by weight.
In its pure elemental state, calcium is a soft, silvery-white alkaline earth metal. It is never found in its isolated state in nature but exists instead in compounds. Calcium compounds can be found in a variety of minerals, including limestone (calcium carbonate), gypsum (calcium sulphate) and fluorite (calcium fluoride).
Calcium compounds are widely used in the food and pharmaceutical industries for supplementation. They are also used as bleaches in the paper industry, as components in cement and electrical insulators, and in manufacturing soaps.
Digging the Earth’s Crust
Despite Jules Verne’s novel, no one has ever journeyed to the center of Earth.
In fact, the deepest hole ever dug by humanity reaches approximately 12 km (7.5 miles) below the Earth’s surface, about one-third of the way to the Earth’s mantle. This incredible depth took about 20 years to reach.
Although mankind is constantly making new discoveries and reaching for the stars, there is still a lot to explore about the Earth we stand on.
What parts make up our planet?
The main layers of the Earth are the crust, the mantle and the core (outer and inner).
What are the 4 parts of planet Earth?
What are the Earth's layers?
Earth's crust: the most superficial layer, with a relatively thin structure and quite rocky.
Mantle: located below the crust, it has solid properties.
Core: Earth's innermost and hottest layer. It has two parts: Outer core: formed by nickel and liquid iron.
What are the three parts of the planet?
Planet Earth has three layers: crust, mantle and core.
How is our planet formed?
The Earth was formed around 4,54 billion years ago, approximately one-third the age of the universe, by accretion of the solar nebula. Volcanic outgassing probably created the primordial atmosphere, and then the ocean, but the early atmosphere contained almost no oxygen.
How many planets are there?
The Solar System is made up of eight planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
What is lithosphere biosphere hydrosphere is atmosphere?
The Earth's internal structure, which presents the lithosphere as a surface part, is basically divided into the crust, mantle and core layers. Above the lithosphere are the gaseous (atmosphere) and liquid (hydrosphere) layers. The set of all ecosystems on the planet forms the biosphere.
How many parts is the planet divided?
The Earth's layers are the Earth's crust, mantle and core. These three layers form the composition of planet Earth and have different characteristics from each other. The Earth's crust is the outermost layer of the planet. The development of human activities takes place in it.
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What are the five parts of the planet?
The crust, mantle, core, lithosphere and mesosphere make up the Earth's structure.
What divides the Earth into 2 parts?
The zero parallel, also called the EQUATOR LINE, divides the planet into two hemispheres: NORTH, above this line, and SOUTH, below this line.
What is the hottest planet in the world?
In fact, Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system, even hotter than Mercury, which is closer to the Sun. Its average surface temperature is 460ºC due to the strong greenhouse effect that occurs on a large scale across the planet.
What is the central part of the planet?
The Earth's core is the innermost and deepest layer of the Earth and has a mineralogical composition of iron and nickel.
Why is the planet called a planet?
In antiquity, astronomers noticed how certain lights moved across the sky in relation to other stars. The ancient Greeks called these lights “πλάνητες ἀστέρες” (planetes asteres: “wandering stars”) or simply “πλανήτοι” (planētoi: “wanderers”), from which the current word “planet” derives.
What are the main characteristics of a planet?
Its planets have distinct characteristics and are classified into rocky and gaseous. The four rocky planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars; the four gases are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. They perform movements around themselves (rotation) and around the Sun (translation).
What are the main features of planet Earth?
Answer: The Earth is considered a telluric planet and has its internal structure divided into: Earth's crust, mantle and core. In addition to the external structure, there is also the internal one that corresponds to the lithosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere and atmosphere, which are what offer the favorable conditions for the existence of life here.
Who was the first living thing on the planet?
We know today that the first living thing was probably very similar to modern prokaryotic microorganisms, classified as bacteria and archaea.
What is the biggest planet?
Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system, it is located between Mars and Saturn.
What is the smallest planet in the world? Mercury planet. It is a rocky planet, being the closest to the Sun and the smallest in the solar system;
What is the coldest planet in the Solar System?
Uranus is the coldest planet in the Solar System, reaching -224ºC. The gas giant also has winds of 900km/h and a unique feature among the planets in the Solar System – its rotation is turned sideways. It is as if the planet rolled in the direction of its translation.
How is the lithosphere divided?
The lithosphere is not a continuous layer. It is divided into tectonic plates, which move and collide. When two of them pass by each other, volcanic activity, earthquakes and the creation of higher relief occur.
What is the largest environment on Earth?
The hydrosphere → layer of the Earth formed by water. Don't stop now… There's more after the publicity This environment covers about 70% of the surface of the planet, adding the physical states, solid and liquid of the water substance, from the oceans, rivers, lakes and underground aquifers to the polar glaciers.
What are the Earth's spheres?
The Earth's surface area can be divided into four "geospheres", whose relationship created environments that allowed the emergence, development and support of life. These spheres are: the lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere.
What is the division of the planet?
The regional division by continents: divides the planet into six large continental portions: Africa, America, Antarctica, Asia, Europe and Oceania.
How is the planet divided in general and what are they?
Based on the studies carried out to date, we can generally classify them into three main ones: crust (oceanic and continental), mantle (upper and lower) and core (internal and external).
What is the name of the layer of the Earth we live in?
We live on planet Earth, in a layer called the “earth crust”.
How is the atmosphere divided?
These are: troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere and exosphere. They are not evenly distributed and their distance varies according to the density of the chemical elements that compose them, so that, as they move away from the Earth's surface, they become rarer.
What is the thinnest layer on the planet?
The Earth's crust is the most superficial layer among those that make up the Earth. It is also the thinnest of these layers, representing a narrow structure formed by rocks, soils and minerals and quite susceptible to natural phenomena.
What's at the bottom of the Earth?
Contrary to what many imagine, the inner core is solid, consisting basically of NIFE (Nickel and Iron). For this reason, evidence suggests that the center of the Earth is a large ball of iron surrounded by a layer of liquid rock.
What's inside the planet?
The Earth's interior, like the interior of other telluric planets, is divided by chemical criteria into: an outer layer of silicon crust; a highly viscous mantle; a core consisting of a solid portion surrounded by a small liquid layer.
What is the coldest star in the world?
The star is called CFBDSIR 1458 10B. She is in the company of another star with a strange name: CFBDSIR 1458 10A. Both are about the same size as Jupiter. According to experts, it is likely that the brown dwarf has different characteristics from the others because it is so cold.
What is the closest planet to Earth?
Venus is considered the closest to us, but studies suggest that the title belongs to Mercury. Have you ever wondered which is the closest planet to Earth? If so, maybe you thought about the planets of the Solar System and considered Mars or, who knows, Venus, a world considered the “brother” of ours.
What is the temperature of the Moon?
The Moon travels around Earth in an oval orbit at 36.800 kilometers per hour. The Moon has no atmosphere, so temperatures range from -184 degrees Celsius at night to 214 degrees Celsius during the day, with the exception of the poles where the temperature is constantly -96 degrees Celsius.
What is the center of the Earth formed?
It is believed that the Earth's core is made up of two portions, one external, of liquid consistency and the other internal, solid and very dense, composed mainly of iron (80%) and nickel (that's why it was formerly called nife).
Where is half of planet Earth?
The Half of the World monument is located in Quito, Ecuador. In turn, the meridians are also imaginary lines, but they cut the planet vertically. They range from 0° to 180° east and west.
What makes the Earth spin?
The possible cause of the Earth's rotation around itself has to do with gravitational torque. It is believed that the force exerted by the Sun and other planets caused the Earth to experience the action of torques (moments of a force) and acquire a rotational motion.
Who discovered the planet?
The inner planets, Mercury and Venus, and the outer planets, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, were identified by ancient Babylonian astronomers in the 2nd millennium BC.
Where does the light that the Earth receives come from?
Almost all of the energy on Earth comes from a single source, the Sun. Thus, practically everything that happens on our planet only happens because there is a star right there releasing a huge amount of energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation (light, basically).
What is the way our planet responds?
The shape of the Earth is defined as a geoid, which has an irregular surface and therefore does not correspond to a sphere.
What forms the outer part of our planet?
Earth's crust: it is the outermost layer, formed basically by rocks and minerals, being fragmented through the formation of tectonic plates. The earth's crust is divided into continental and oceanic, or even into sima and sial.
What are the main characteristics of a planet?
terrestrial or telluric planets (formed mainly by rocks), located closer to the sun such as Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars; gaseous or Jovian planets (consisting mostly of gases), which are larger in size and lower in density compared to terrestrial ones: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
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