VOLUME 33, NO.

2, FEBRUARY, 1956

THE ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION OF THE EARTH

ISAAC ASIMOV
Boston University School of Medicine. Boston, Massachusetts

IK .L previous communication,' the author prepared
t,ables giving the elementary composition of the earth's
rrubt by atom number as well as by weight, in an effort
t,o show how this altered the usual conception of the
reht,ive frequency of occurrence of the different ele-
ments. The author has since 'ome across a table2 esti-
mating the elementary composition of the earth a s a
whole (see Table l),using the usual unit, i. e., per cent
hy weight. It will be seen that iron is in first place by
a good margin. This is not unexpected in view of the
earth's well known "iron core."
Nevertheless it would be over-hasty to suppose that
oxygen, so predominant in the earth's crust, mnet be
I Anr~ov,I., J. CHEM.EDUC31, 70 (1954).
2 Given in WEAYER,E. C. A Y D L. S. FOSTER,"Chemistry fat.
Our Times," McGrarv-Hill Book Co., Inc., New York, 1954.
The tshle is there stated to have been prepared by H. S. Wsshing-
ton of the Geophysical Lahoratovp, Washington, D. C.
satisfied ~\.ithsecond place once the iron core is counted
in. After all, it must be remembered that the indi-
vidual iron atom is 3.5 times as massive as the oxygen
atom. If the elements are counted not by weight but
by atom numbers, Tahle 2 is the result.
I t can now be seen that there are more atoms of oxy-
gen in the entire earth, iron core and all, than any other.
I n fact, there are almost as many atoms of oxygen in
the earth, iron core and all, as all other kinds of atoms
combined.
A final note: The ratio of neutrons to protons in the
individual elements, as naturally occurring, can readily
be calculated when the frequency and mass number of
the isotopes of each element are knomn. Taking a
weighted average of these ratios for the elements pre-
dominating in the earth, it can be calculat,ed that the
number of neutrons in the earth is 1.064 times the num-
ber of protons.

TABLE 1 TABLE 2
Elementary Composition of t h e Earth by Weight Elementary Composition of t h e E a r t h by Atom Number
Element G i n m per la thousand grams Element Atoms aer ten thousand atoms
Iron Oxygen
Oxygen Iron
Silicon Silicon
Magnesium Magnesium
Kickel Aluminum
Citlcium Calcium
Aluminum Nickel
Sulfur Sulfur
Sodium Sodium
Cobalt Cobalt
Chromium Chromium
Poti~ssium Potsssium
Phosphorus Phosphorus
Manganese Carbon
Carbon Manganese 4
Titanium 1
68 JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION

NEW /?ER/OD/C n6L.E BASED ON STAWTY OF ATOMC ORBITALS

from above
- - - - - a d 4 4s2
-----3d94 s 2
----- 4dJ 5s2
- - - - - 4 d 4 5s'
-----4 d 6 5s'
- - - - - 4 d 7 5s2
- - - - -4 dB 5s2
---- -4d9 5s2
---- - -4d5 5s'
- - - - - 5 d 7 6s2
----- 5d8 6s2
------5d9 6 s2