The chemical elements found in meteorites.
25. As to the kinds of elementary matter[13] of which meteorites are composed, about one-third, and those the most common, of the elements at present recognised as constituents of the earth's crust have been met with: no new elementary body has been discovered. The most frequent or plentiful in their occurrence are:—
- Aluminium
- Calcium
- Carbon
- Iron
- Magnesium
- Nickel
- Oxygen
- Phosphorus
- Silicon
- Sulphur:
while, less frequently or in smaller quantities, are found:
- Antimony
- Arsenic
- Chlorine
- Chromium
- Cobalt
- Copper
- Hydrogen
- Lithium
- Manganese
- Nitrogen
- Potassium
- Sodium
- Strontium
- Tin
- Titanium
- Vanadium.
Elements present only in minute quantity.
26. In addition to the above, the existence of minute traces of several other elements has been announced; of these special mention may be made of gallium, gold, iridium, lead, platinum and silver.
Both simple and combined.
27. Most of the above elements are present in the combined state; the iron occurring chiefly in combination with nickel, and the phosphorus almost always combined with both nickel and iron. Some of them are found also in their elementary condition: perhaps hydrogen and nitrogen; carbon, both as indistinctly crystallised diamond and as graphitic carbon, the latter being generally amorphous, but occasionally in cubic crystals (cliftonite); free phosphorus has been found in Saline Township; free sulphur has been observed in one of the carbonaceous meteorites, but may have been separated from the unstable sulphides since the entry into our atmosphere.