4 ms·
I'm surprised it's not more abundant. Usually, the smaller the atomic number, the more abundant the element is in the universe. But surprisingly, Lithium, Beryl
by hliyan 9y ago
I'm surprised it's not more abundant. Usually, the smaller the atomic number, the more abundant the element is in the universe. But surprisingly, Lithium, Beryllium and Boron are not that abundant (compared to, say, Carbon).
Edit: at least not in the Earth's crust...
- taneq 9y agoI thought this was a good question so I looked it up. While on average, lighter elements are more common, it looks like after hydrogen and helium, the rest are far less common and not in atomic mass order ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_of_the_chemical_elements https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_of_the_chemical_elem... ). This seems to be due to matter being created in two phases, primordial nucleosynthesis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bang_nucleosynthesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bang_nucleosynthesis) where hydrogen and helium formed out of protons and neutrons, and then later stellar neucleosynthesis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellar_nucleosynthesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellar_nucleosynthesis) where heavier elements were formed inside stars via fusion. This explains the distribution of heavier elements, because they were created by specific fusion pathways rather than just hot stuff cooling down.
- jessriedel 9y agoMy guess is that that explanation doesn't provide even a good first approximation to the abundances of element in the Earth's crust. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_of_elements_in_Earth%27s_crust https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_of_elements_in_Earth... I think there's just a lot of chemistry and geology going on.
- taneq 9y agoI think neither chemistry nor geology can alter the relative abundance of elements.
- jessriedel 9y agoYou'd be wrong. First, light gases escape from the Earth's gravity, which is why there's no molecular hydrogen or almost any helium whatsoever. Second, the crust is not the same thing as the Earth, and the distribution of elements by depth depends a lot on the density and other properties of the material elements are chemically bonded into.
- taneq 9y agoHm, those are actually pretty good points. I stand corrected.
- ufo 9y agoLithium is still relatively common though. The problem with it evenly spread out over the planet and there are few concentrated deposits of it.