Sodium solar abundance

Natural isotopes of sodium and their solar abundances... 

The concentrations of four typical moderately volatile elements—manganese, sodium, selenium, and zinc—in the various classes of chondritic meteorites are shown in Figure 12, where elements are normalized to magnesium and CI-chondrites. Again there is excellent agreement between solar abundances and Cl-meteorites. A characteristic feature of the chemistry of carbonaceous chondrites is the simultaneous depletion of sodium and manganese in all types of carbonaceous chondrites, except Cl. Ordinary and enstatite chondrites are not or only slightly... 

Sodium is present in fair abundance in the sun and stars. The D lines of sodium are among the most prominent in the solar spectrum. Sodium is the fourth most abundant element on earth, comprising about 2.6% of the earth s crust it is the most abundant of the alkali group of metals. 

Among the elements that make up rocks and minerals, silicon, magnesium, and iron are of almost equal abundance followed by sulfur, aluminum, calcium, sodium, nickel, and chromium. Two of the most common minerals in meteorites and in the terrestrial planets are olivine ((Mg,Fe)2Si04) and pyroxene ((Mg,Fe,Ca)Si03). The composition obtained by averaging these two minerals is very similar to the bulk solar system composition, so it is really no surprise that they are so abundant. 

In Figure 3, sodium, zinc, and sulfur are representative of the abundances of moderately volatile elements (Figure 2 and Table 2). Abundance variations reach a factor of 5 for sulfur and 10 for zinc. All three elements show excellent agreement of solar with Cl abundances, in contrast to other groups of chondritic meteorites, except for the enstatite chondrites, which reach the level of Cl abundances. However, enstatite chondrites... 

Sodium is the most abundant metal in sea water. Sodium chloride is commercially produced from sea water by solar evaporation. Salt is a dietary necessity, but only a small fraction of the production is actually used as table salt in foods. The chemical usages for sodium are so extensive that salt is one of the most important raw materials for the chemical industries. 

Most of the abundant anions and cations in both natural and marine waters — chloride, bromide, carbonate, sulfate, sodium, potassium, calcium, etc.—are transparent to solar radiation. Only a few trace metal cations, nitrite, and nitrate show any absorbance at all and their contribution to the total extinction is usually negligible in comparison to the organic species. 

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