Title: THE ABUNDANCE OF CHEMICAL ELEMENTS IN THE EARTH'S CRUST AND ITS MAJOR TECTONIC UNITS
Abstract: The earth's crust is defined as the solid outer shell of the earth,and delimited fromthe top,the earth rigid surface,down deep to the Mohorovicic discontinuity.By such adefinition,the abundance of chemical elements in the crust is recalculated by a newmethod,named the regional geochemical method,on the basis of newest data presentedin recent ten years by A.Poldervaart(1955),K.K.Turekian and K.H.Wedepohl(1961),and A.P.Vinogradov(1962). The rocks and sediments distributed in the crust are quite different whether alongthe horizontal or the vertical direction.In order to obtain the elemental abundances ofthe crust as a whole,the crust may be divided into two parts,i.e.the continental crustand the oceanic crust.The continental crust may be subdivided into the continentalshield region and the region of post-Cambrian folded belts(including volcanic islands);and the oceanic crust may be subdivided into the deep oceanic region and the region ofcontinental shelf and slope(suboceanic region).Using the ratio of rock types which varyvertically in each region,and the chemical composition of each rock type,the amount ofelements in such region may be obtained.Then the elemental abundances of the crustand its major tectonic units can be estimated respectively by their relative weight of mass.The final results are tabulated in table 1 (in gramsperton) and table 2 (in atoms per 10~6atoms Si).In both tables,the average amount of elements in crystalline rocks and sedi-mentary rocks in the whole crust are also given. According to the data calculated by the writers,several problems are discussed witha view of regional geochemistry.First,the writers pay attention to the distributioncharacteristics of elements in each major tectonic unit,and the regularities of elementaldistribution between such units.Secondary,the writers point out that the data of ele-mental abundances in the so-called crust (or lithosphere) calculated by A.P.Vinogradov(1962),V.M.Goldschmidt (1954) and F.W.Clark (1924) are essentially correspon-ding to those in the continental crust,but not to those in the whole crust.Therefore,not only the abundance of minor elements in the crust estimated by these authorities must berevised,but also the abundance of major elements.Thirdly,in order to reflect theuneven distribution of the elements in different regions of the crust,the writers offer forconsideration the concentration clark,the term first used by V.E.Vernadsky,maybe divided into several orders with different geochemical backgrounds. Notes for table 1 and 2: 1. a and a'——Deep oceanic region. 2. b and b'——Suboceanic region. 3. c and c'——Continental Shield region. 4. d and d'——Folded belts region. 5. e and e'——Oceanic crust. 6. f and f'——Continental crust. 7. g and g'——Earth's crust. 8. h and h'——Crystalline rocks. 9. i and i'——Sedimentary rocks.
Publication Year: 1965
Publication Date: 1965-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 8
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