Abundance of Elements in the Earth’s Crust

Of the elements in the periodic table, 30 have been shown to be essential for microbial growth, although not all of these 30 elements are necessary for the growth and division of every microbial species (Fig. 2). There is an apparent correlation between the abundance of elements in the earth s crust and the nutritional requirements of microbial cells (Wood, 1984). The rates at which elements are cycled in an aqueous environment depends upon the availability of the bulk elements C, H, N, O, P and S (Salomons and Baccini, 1984). 

Table 1.1. Natural Abundance of Elements in the Earth s Crust ...

Arsenic is widely distributed in the environment. It ranks twentieth in the abundance of elements in the Earth s crust. In the environment, arsenic is mainly associated with sulfide minerals. Soils contain arsenic usually in the range of 0.5 to 35 mg/kg [98]. Arsenic levels in gold ore deposits in Zimbabwe attain 20 g/kg in soils [99]. 

Fig. 1 The relative abundance of elements in the earth s crust illustrates the common availability of quartz and the silicas [1]...

D. R. Lide, Section 14, Geophysics, Astronomy, and Acoustics Abundance of Elements in the Earth s Crust and in the Sea, Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, 85th edn, 2005. 

Fig. 13.2 Abundances of elements in the Earth s crusts. Aluminium is the most abundant metal. The most abundant minerals are silicates (see Section 14.9).

---