The Earth’s Crust

When we compare the estimated abundance of the elements in the Earth with their abundance
in the Earth’s continental and oceanic crusts, a completely different situation is found (Table 1-5). The
Earth is a highly fractionated body, with elements such as potassium strongly concentrated in the crust.
This is particularly true for the very old continental crust, but also holds true to a lesser extent for the
young (less than 250 million years) oceanic crust. This fractionation may represent the result of
heterogeneous accretion from a condensing solar nebula, as described earlier, or it may represent
segregation within an initially homogeneous body. In the latter model, the initially solid mass became
molten owing to heat from radioactive decay. Molten drops of iron and other heavy metals sank to the
core, and light elements moved upward to form the crust. The body then cooled and became solid, with
the exception of part of the core. Thus the formation of the core, mantle, and crust may have been the
result of accretion, without a liquid stage, or it may have occurred as part of a molten period after
accretion.

*The reasoning is as follows. We select a TI/U ratio for the solar nebula using estimates of
solar system composition. The uranium content of the primitive Earth is estimated from heat-
flow and other data. Knowing the absolute amount of uranium in the primitive Earth and
assuming the TI/U ratio has not changed with time, we can determine the absolute amount
of thallium in the primitive Earth. This in turn tells us what proportion of the late-forming,
thallium-containing condensate (whose composition has been calculated using vapor-solid
equilibria and an estimate of original nebula composition) would be needed to form the
primitive Earth. Knowing the proportion of the late-forming, volatile-rich condensate tells us
the proportions of the other elements occurring with thallium in the condensate. Finally, this
information can be used with other information obtained in the same way to estimate the
overall composition of the Earth.

Other models of the Earth’s early history postulate formation of the continental crust significantly
later than the initial development of a core and primitive mantle (Taylor 1992). In any case, further
segregation of elements in the upper mantle and in the crust occurred owing to magma formation (as a
result of the convective movement of the mantle material to lower pressure and of radiogenic heating),
movement, and fractional crystallization. The continents may represent the altered remnants of an
originally global continental crust, or they may have formed by tectonic additions to initial continental
nuclei (Taylor and McLennan 1985).

Our knowledge of the chemical composition of the Earth’s continental and oceanic crusts comes
from rock analyses and from geophysical evidence of the structure of the crust. The crust averages 35
kilometers in thickness under the continents and 10 kilometers beneath the ocean, and is not
homogeneous either vertically or laterally. Thus assumption must be made about the size and
compositions of various subdivisions of the crust. The gross subdivisions usually considered are (1)
sediments and sedimentary rocks at the surface of the crust, (2) granitic material in the upper part of the
continental crust, and (3) basaltic material in the lower part of the continental crust and making up the
oceanic crust. A more detailed approach is to divide the crust into geological divisions-shield areas,
geosynclinal areas, continental shelves, etc.—and estimate the composition and volume of each. A major
problem is uncertainty concerning the material making up the lower part of the continental crust. It is
interesting to note that, despite the increased knowledge of rock compositions and crustal structure,
current estimates of the composition of the crust are very similar to the first well-documented estimate
made by F. W. Clarke and H. S. Washing ton in 1924. This pioneering effort assumed that the crust has a
composition equal to the average composition of igneous rocks. Table 1-5 contains a “modern” estimate
of the composition of the continental and oceanic crusts.

Oxygen is the dominant element in the crust (about 47 percent by weight and 94 percent by
volume). The other major element is silicon, which is about 28 percent by weight (but less than 1 percent
by volume because of the small size of the silicon atoms). The processes involved in the formation of the
present crust separated certain elements from the main body of the Earth and concentrated them in the
crust. Even though many of these elements are not abundant in the crust, they have a higher
concentration there than in the rest of the Earth. If we compare abundances of various elements in the
primitive mantle and in the continental crust (Table 1-5), we find the following elements strongly enriched
in the crust: Li, Be, Na, Al, K, Ti, Rb, Sr, Y, Zr, Nb, Cs, Ba, La, the rare earths, Hf, Pb, Th, and U. These
elements, known as incompatible elements, are preferentially concentrated in a magma formed by partial
fusion of a source rock (see Chapter Eight)*. The separation of crustal material from the mantle was (and
is) primarily an igneous process, and these elements were apparently brought to the crust as it formed.
Many of these same elements are found in concentrations greater than their crustal average in certain
types of igneous rock (such as pegmatite). Sedimentary processes produce a further fraction of the
elements at the surface of the crust. The chemical compositions and general chemistry of igneous,
sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks are discussed in the Chapter Seven through Nine. Also discussed in
these chapters are surface variations in the composition of the Earth’s crust.

*Many of the incompatible elements also belong to the group of elements known as the LIL ( large
ion lithophile ) elements. These elements tend to occur in silicate minerals (as oppose to sulfide and native
iron phases) and have ionic radii larger than those of the common rock-forming elements. Barium and
uranium are examples of he LIL elements. See the discussion of lithophile elements later in this chapter.
Appropriate data are not shown in Table 1-5 for other incompatible elements: B, F, Ia, I, Ta, W, Tl, and Bi.

The Oceans and The Atmosphere

The composition of seawater and the Earth’s atmosphere are very different from that of the
Earth’s solid material (Tables 1-11 and 1-12; note that these two tables have abundances expressed in
units of ppm by weight and ppm by volume, respectively, whereas these in Table 1-5 are in terms of
atoms). The ocean and atmosphere originally consisted of liquid and gaseous material separated from the
main mass of the Earth during its early history (Holland 1984). Since that time, their composition has been
altered as a result of the chemical weathering, biological activity, and igneous eruptions. In the historical
time, humans have begun to alter their composition. Both seawater and the atmosphere are quite
homogeneous compared to the Earth and the Earth’s crust.

In seawater, the relative proportions of the major elements (Cl, Na, Mg, S, Ca, and K) are
essentially constant (calcium and magnesium vary slightly from place to place in their ratios with other
elements). This is true even though the total amount of dissolved salts (salinity) is very low and shows
some variation from place to place. Those elements that are involved in biological activity (such as C, O,
N, and P) vary in concentration with depth, mainly because photosynthesis can occur near the surface but
not in deeper water. Other factors are the high concentration of organism in surface layers and chemical
exchange between surface water and the atmosphere. The major dissolved gases in seawater (N2, O2, and
CO2) all show large variation in concentration. Only 15 elements occur in seawater with a concentration
over 1 part per million (ppm) by weight (note that hydrogen and oxygen are not listed in Table 1-11). Some
of the elements that occur in trace amounts show large regional variations; others appear to have a
constant value.

Also listed in Table 1-11 are estimates of the residence time of individual elements. The residence
time is the average time an atom of a particular element spends in the ocean. Various amounts of the
elements are continually entering and leaving the ocean. Knowledge of the element residence times and
of the incoming and outgoing fluxes (masses transported per unit time) for the ocean allows us to identify
the major factors controlling ocean chemistry. Note that the residence times in Table 1-11 vary from 102
to 108 years. Holland (1978) has pointed out that the residence times of the dissolved constituents are a
small fraction of the age of the Earth. Thus most elements has moved through the ocean many times over
since it first formed. Further discussion of the chemistry of the ocean can be found in Chapter Three, Four,
Six, and Seven.

As with the ocean, the atmosphere can be viewed as a reservoir with incoming and outgoing
fluxes. The residence times listed in Table 1-12 vary from less than one day to cover one million years.
Some elements, such as oxygen and nitrogen, have had constant concentrations during the recent history
of the Earth. Other elements and compounds, with very short residence times, show highly variable
concentrations, Examples are H2O, NH3, and SO2.

The composition of the Earth’s early atmosphere was determined by the processes that formed
the Earth from planetary material (Holland 1984). The gases originally exhaled from the evolving Earth
went through a series of reactions to reach some type of equilibrium state. Gases that were probably
abundant at the time include NH3, H2, H2O, CH4, and CO. With the passage of time, additional material was
added by volcanic activity. This early atmosphere was anaerobic (no free oxygen) and the most critical
change with time was the development of free oxygen as a result of biological photosynthesis. This change
took place in late Precambrian time, and study of the rocks formed since then indicates that the
composition of the atmosphere has remained relatively constant for about the last one billion years. The
composition of the atmosphere has regulated chemical weathering and the formation of sedimentary
rocks through its control of the oxygen and carbon dioxide contents of surface waters. The history of
seawater probably parallels that of the atmosphere; it formed from water vapor escaping from the solid
earth and changed in composition with time until stabilizing in the late Precambrian.