lol more water than air by weight. How much hydrogen is in the water ? ;) Bet there is twice as much hydrogen than oxygen. ;^)
The two most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity.
Harlan Ellison
US science fiction author & screenwriter (1934 - )
The most often quoted result is for the most common elements by mass in the lithosphere. In order,
they are:
oxygen, silicon, aluminium, iron, calcium, sodium, potassium, magnesium (different sources have these
last four in different orders), titanium, and hydrogen.
For the earth as a whole, the order is changed because magnesium is much more abundant in the
mantle (along with silicon, oxygen, and potassium), and iron and nickel are the main elements in the
core.
For the universe as a whole, the common elements are recognized as hydrogen, helium, oxygen,
carbon, neon, nitrogen, magnesium, silicon, sulfur, iron. There is a lot of uncertainty about the
composition of the interior of the sun, that makes it difficult to put the elements in order reliably for
the solar system. The most common elements are still the same ten, but some people think that heavier
elements like iron and silicon are much more abundant in the sun's interior, and therefore in the solar
system.
For the oceans, oxygen and hydrogen are obviously the most common elements in that order, because
the oceans are made of water mostly! After those two elements, we come to the salts, and the next
eight most common elements are chlorine, sodium, magnesium, sulfur, calcium, potassium, bromine,
and carbon. |
