List of Naturally Occurring Elements

Some elements have been made by man, but do not exist naturally. Have you ever wondered how many elements are found in nature?

Of the 118 elements that have been discovered, there are 90 elements that occur in nature in appreciable amounts. Depending who you ask, there are another 4 or 8 elements that occur in nature as a result of radioactive decay of heavier elements. So, the grand total of natural elements is 94 or 98. As new decay schemes are discovered, it's likely the number of natural elements will grow. However, these elements will likely be present in trace amounts.

There are 80 elements that have at least one stable isotope. The other 38 elements exist only as radioactive isotopes. Several of the radioisotopes instantly decay into a different element.

It used to be believed that of the first 92 elements on the periodic table (1 is hydrogen and 92 is uranium) that 90 elements occur naturally. Technetium (atomic number 43) and promethium (atomic number 61) were synthesized by man before they were identified in nature.

List of the Natural Elements

Assuming 98 elements can be found, however briefly, in nature, there are 10 found in extremely minute amounts: technetium, atomic number 43; promethium, number 61; astatine, number 85; francium, number 87; neptunium, number 93; plutonium, number 94; americium, number 95; curium, number 96; berkelium, number 97; and californium, number 98.

Here is an alphabetical list of the natural elements:

The elements are detected in stars, nebulas, and supernovae from their spectra. While pretty much the same elements are found on Earth compared to the rest of the universe, the ratios of the elements and their isotopes are different.