Nickel

Ni. the element, not specifically the US coin. Your traction battery is full of it. In general, the earth's crust is not. Most of it sunk to the Earth's core during the olden, molten days.

Speed down to the last map here:

Elemental - Wired Science

to see Ni concentrations in continental US soils. A bunch of small splotches, which would suggest that they are doing a bad job of kriging*, except the other soils maps don't look splotchy. Given that earth impactors are often high in Ni (being accreted solar dust), this map suggests impacts to me. That only works if the local crust is old, which we'd want to know. Also one would expect local gravity 'highs' to match. Wasn't there a high-res gravity map somewhere recently?

Anyway, I like the soil Ni map. Maybe we should have a thread for every element here. Or not, right, guys?


* oh just look it up.