Question

Approximately how many elements occur naturally on earth?

Answer 1

Hint: All the elements which are present in the periodic table are not available naturally on the earth. Few elements are available in nature and the remaining is synthesized from the naturally occurring elements and is called with the name of synthetic elements.

Complete step by step answer:
- In the question it is asked how many elements present in the periodic table are naturally occurring.
- The elements which are available in nature freely are called naturally available elements.
- In the periodic table there are 118 elements, all the elements (118) do not occur naturally.
- The naturally occurring elements are 1- 92 except Technetium (43) and promethium (61).
- Means there are only 90 naturally occurring elements available in the periodic table.
- The elements technetium and promethium are synthesized from uranium and are called synthetic.
- The naturally occurring elements include noble gases, some of them are metals and some of them are nonmetals.
- Again metals are divided into alkali, alkaline earth metals and rare earth elements.
- Among the metals gold, silver and platinum are the costliest metals.
- Therefore only 90 elements present in the periodic table occur naturally and are called naturally occurring elements.

Note: Very trace amounts of technetium and promethium are available in earth’s crust. The elements which occur naturally are not in pure form. They occur in combined form with other chemicals called ores. We can extract pure metals from ores by using various techniques.