Can you name the most abundant elements in the Earth's crust?

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Earth's Crust Elements Quiz

by Matt

Created Sep 24, 2008 in Science
Featured Sep 24, 2008
Game Plays 95,768

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	gopaladins:	Sep 24th, 2008 at 17:36 GMT		3 points
	hard

	Andrew:	Sep 24th, 2008 at 17:59 GMT		18 points
	7/10 here... I had no idea there were so many bananas!

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	Brandon:	Sep 25th, 2008 at 00:57 GMT		22 points
	i'd thought for sure carbon, but obviously not

	D.J.:	Sep 25th, 2008 at 13:10 GMT		5 points
	I love this game

	davidr:	Sep 25th, 2008 at 13:15 GMT		7 points
	I was a bit surprised that carbon wasn't on the list but it turns out that the total mass of carbon in carbonates is estimated to be only about four times higher than that in organic compounds, which isn't all that much. All the data you could possibly want on the subject is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundances_of_the_elements_(data_page) . I think carbon is 16th based on the figures from the CRC Handbook but the table is sorted by atomic number and I might have mis-counted.

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	iurewhiuerw:	Sep 25th, 2008 at 14:54 GMT		5 points
	not the crust, and water is made from hydrogen and oxygen anyway

	cls121389:	Sep 26th, 2008 at 02:09 GMT		-2 points
	should be allowed more time...

	tcalleen:	Oct 5th, 2008 at 03:22 GMT		3 points
	I agree - I thought carbon would be in the list. I also thought that nitrogen would be there as well, but this sounds too much like chemistry, and that wasn't my favorite subject.

	U.S.S. Defiant:	Dec 18th, 2008 at 15:17 GMT		-2 points
	Yes!!!! Got them all after a few random guesses and a few hundred tries!

	sactoshc:	Jan 3rd, 2009 at 17:13 GMT		5 points
	Thank God I prepared by taking the Periodic Table of Elements quiz.

	R:	Jan 6th, 2009 at 20:40 GMT		4 points
	This one is actually rather easy to guess if you know all your elements and their approximate positions.

	OscilatingGibbon:	Jan 25th, 2009 at 10:50 GMT		5 points
	Knowing the various types of silicates really helps here

	Lulu:	Jan 31st, 2009 at 14:57 GMT		-4 points
	No carbon???

	zigra:	Feb 9th, 2009 at 19:43 GMT		-1 points
	My backside hurts from kicking myself for missing sodium. SODIUM!!!

	zaphraud:	Feb 15th, 2009 at 18:45 GMT		-1 points
	5 seconds to spare, but I'd have been screwed if I got counted off for all the elements I tried that weren't in the list. Excellent quiz - really makes you think about sustainability.

	zaphraud:	Feb 15th, 2009 at 18:47 GMT		-1 points
	I was more surprised about sulfur than carbon, really... with all the sulfates sitting right on the surface around here, I was sure it'd be in the top 10. I guess thats what I get for living in the southwest of North America? Lots of calcium sulfate 'round these parts.

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	Pat423:	May 25th, 2009 at 01:16 GMT		1 point
	Surprised most by absence of sulfur, phosphorus, and nitrogen. Would it be because N and S are found in many readily produced gases?

	LEE:	Jun 1st, 2009 at 12:28 GMT		-1 points
	I missed K and Ti. The rest I got from knowing the five most abundant elements and thinking about common compounds. Mg was a random guess.

	mjenks:	Jun 19th, 2009 at 20:19 GMT		0 points
	@ Pat: Nitrogen is more stable in a gaseous form. It makes such a fine explosive because wants to return to diatomic nitrogen. As for carbon and sulfur...silicates make up so much more minerals than either carbonate or sulfates/sulfites, and those silicates then attach themselves to the abundant metal ions. Hydrogen is on here because of so many hydrated forms of minerals found in the crust.

	smarty:	Jul 9th, 2009 at 07:07 GMT		-1 points
	Wow I'm surprised nobody has abused whoever made the quiz about aluminium/aluminum.

	mjenks:	Aug 5th, 2009 at 20:16 GMT		2 points
	@ Matt: Water isn't an element.

	LavaGirl:	Aug 12th, 2009 at 16:23 GMT		0 points
	Any intro to geology course will help you with this quiz. However, I strongly disagree with hydrogen as answer. It should be phosphorus (0.1%). Since I am an igneous petrologist and routinely analysis my samples for their chemical composition.

	Robg19:	Sep 29th, 2009 at 23:51 GMT		0 points
	I got every single one but somehow managed to forget oxygen... I guess i was thinking metals but still how did i forget oxygen???

	HtomSirveaux:	Nov 22nd, 2009 at 13:33 GMT		0 points
	Gotta agree with lavagirl, to an extent (two posts above). Phosphorus is quite common - look at how much apatite you can get in some lavas. That said, I think there is some room for hydrogen to be there too, considering the substantial quantities of amphiboles and micas in igneous materials, to say nothing of clays. Though my username doesn't suggest it, I'm an igneous petrologist as well, and can vouch for phosphorus (and manganese) being routinely checked in geochem analyses.

	jamiez:	Jan 2nd, 2010 at 01:32 GMT		2 points
	Yep, definitely helps to be a geologist.

	bluepeter46:	Jan 23rd, 2010 at 21:27 GMT		2 points
	I would never have guessed titanium.

	WCRoentgen:	Feb 13th, 2010 at 18:43 GMT		-1 points
	Can you name the elements from their uses or origins?: http://www.sporcle.com/games/WCRoentgen/elements

	quinlan_attacks:	Mar 12th, 2010 at 17:14 GMT		2 points
	you're wrong, potassium is 2.09% and Magnesium is 2.33. So Magnesium should be the one rounded up and potassium should be rounded down. http://education.jlab.org/glossary/abund_ele.html

	andrewsaurus:	Jun 23rd, 2010 at 15:35 GMT		1 point
	quinlan, there are plenty of different measurements out there and I doubt any of them are perfectly accurate, so a matter of .2 percent or so really isn't that big of a deal.....

	mbenson:	Sep 7th, 2010 at 16:26 GMT		-2 points
	8/10, cant believe carbon wasn't one of the answers...

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	oatey:	Jan 2nd, 2011 at 19:51 GMT		3 points
	hiccup - it does say the earth's crust.. try reading the question first!

	kern:	Apr 11th, 2011 at 19:39 GMT		3 points
	@matt omg what school did you go to

	jb225:	May 2nd, 2011 at 22:01 GMT		0 points
	shouldn't carbon be up there...

	Acid_Snow:	Jan 6th, 2013 at 18:46 GMT		1 point
	I will admit that Titanium was a shot in the dark. The rest I knew.