Background geochemistry of some rocks, soils, plants, and vegetables in the conterminous United States

Geochemical summary statistics for 48 elements in natural materials from 147 landscape units have been compiled based on field and laboratory studies since 1958. Each landscape unit is briefly identified as to kind and location, and the expected concentration for one or more elements is given together with factors indicating the degree of observed variation in the study and the degree of laboratory or ''analytical'' variation. Also listed are the observed range and the total number of element analyses made in each study. The data on which these summaries are based have three attributes in common: they represent ''large-scale'' or regional geochemical studies; they represent background or ''ordinary'' natural geochemical variation; and they were collected according to objective sampling designs. The summaries clearly demonstrate the wide diversity to be expected in elemental properties of landscape units and suggest that published element abundances for broad categories like ''soil'' or ''carbonate rock'' may be misleading.

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