Titanium

Titanium: geological information

Titanium metal is not found as the free element. The element is the ninth most abundant in the earth's crust. It is usually present in igneous rocks and in the sediments derived from them. It is found in the minerals rutile (TiO₂), ilmenite (FeTiO₃), and sphene, and is present in titanates and in many iron ores. Deosits are located in North America, Australia, Scandinavia, and Malaysia.

Titanium is present in meteorites and has been detected in the sun. Some lunar rocks contain high concentrations of the dioxide. Titanium oxide bands are prominent in the spectra of M-type stars.

Abundances of titanium in various environments

In this table of abundances, values are given in units of ppb (parts per billion; 1 billion = 10⁹), both in terms of weight and in terms of numbers of atoms. Values for abundances are difficult to determine with certainty, so all values should be treated with some caution, especially so for the less common elements. Local concentrations of any element can vary from those given here an orders of magnitude or so and values in various literature sources for less common elements do seem to vary considerably.

The chart below shows the log of the abundance (on a parts per billion scale) of the elements by atom number in our sun. Notice the "sawtooth" effect where elements with even atomic numbers tend to be more strongly represented than those with odd atomic numbers. This shows up best using the "Bar chart" option on the chart.

Log abundance (by atom numbers) in our sun

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