Atomic Symbol: Ba
Atomic Number: 56
Atomic Weight: 132.9054 g/mol
Isotopes and Abundances: 130Ba 0.11%, 132Ba 0.10%, 134Ba 2.42%, 135Ba 6.59%, 136Ba 7.85%, 137Ba 11.23%, 138Ba 71.70%
1 Atm Melting Point: 727 °C
1 Atm Boiling Point: 1845 °C
Common Valences: 2+
Ionic Radii: 149 pm (6-fold)
Pauling Electronegativity: 0.89
First Ionization Energy: 502.9 kJ/mol
Chondritic (CI) Abundance: 2.42 ppm
Silicate Earth Abundance: 6.6 ppm
Crustal Abundance: 390 ppm
Seawater Abundance: 30 to 150 nmol/kg
Core Abundance: ~0
Properties
Barium derived its English name from the Greek barys, meaning heavy. It is the heaviest stable alkaline earth and unusually abundant for an element with such a high atomic number. Barium, Pb, and Te are the only elements heavier than Zr (atomic number 40) with CI chondritic abundances greater than 2 ppm (Palme (in press), “Cosmic Elemental Abundances,” this volume). This is due in large part to the unusual abundance of 138Ba, which has a magic...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Andreasen R, Sharma M (2007) Mixing and homogenization in the early solar system: clues from Sr, Ba, Nd, and Sm isotopes in meteorites. Astrophys J 665(1):874
Bishop JKB (1988) The barite-opal-organic carbon association in oceanic particulate matter. Nature 332:341–343. https://doi.org/10.1038/332341a0
Cao Z, Siebert C, Hathorne EC, Dai M, Frank M (2016) Constraining the oceanic barium cycle with stable barium isotopes. Earth Planet Sci Lett 434:1–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2015.11.017
Carlson RW, Boyet M, Horan M (2007) Chondrite barium, neodymium, and samarium isotopic heterogeneity and early Earth differentiation. Science 316(5828):1175–1178. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1140189
Chan LH, Edmond JM, Stallard RF, Broecker WS, Chung YC, Weiss RF, Ku TL (1976) Radium and barium at GEOSECS stations in the Atlantic and Pacific. Earth Planet Sci Lett 32:258–267
Chan LH, Drummond D, Edmond JM, Grant B (1977) On the barium data from the Atlantic GEOSECS expedition. Deep-Sea Res 24:613–649
Choudhury H, Cary R (2001) Barium and barium compounds. World Health Organization concise international chemical assessment document 33. World Health Organization, Geneva. Retrieved from http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/42398/1/9241530332.pdf
Dymond J, Suess E, Lyle M (1992) Barium in deep-sea sediment: a geochemical proxy for paleoproductivity. Paleoceanography 7(2):163–181. https://doi.org/10.1029/92PA00181
Horner TJ, Kinsley CW, Nielsen SG (2015) Barium-isotopic fractionation in seawater mediated by barite cycling and oceanic circulation. Earth Planet Sci Lett 430:511–522. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2015.07.027
Hsieh Y-T, Henderson GM (2017) Barium stable isotopes in the global ocean: tracer of Ba inputs and utilization. Earth Planet Sci Lett 473:269–278. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2017.06.024
Kay RW (1980) Volcanic arc magmas: implications of a melting-mixing model for element recycling in the crust-upper mantle system. J Geol 88(5):497–522. https://doi.org/10.2307/30066081
LaVigne M, Grottoli AG, Palardy JE, Sherrell RM (2016) Multi-colony calibrations of coral Ba/Ca with a contemporaneous in situ seawater barium record. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 179:203–216. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2015.12.038
Lea DW, Shen GT, Boyle EA (1989) Coralline barium records temporal variability in equatorial Pacific upwelling. Nature 340(6232):373–376
McManus J, Berelson WM, Klinkhammer GP, Johnson KS, Coale KH, Anderson RF, Kumar N, Burdige DJ, Hammond DE, Brumsack HJ, McCorkle DC, Rushdi A (1998) Geochemistry of barium in marine sediments: implications for its use as a paleoproxy. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 62(21):3453–3473. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0016-7037(98)00248-8
Moynier F, Pringle EA, Bouvier A, Moureau J (2015) Barium stable isotope composition of the Earth, meteorites, and calcium–aluminum-rich inclusions. Chem Geol 413:1–6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemgeo.2015.08.002
Plank T (2014) The chemical composition of subducting sediments. In: Turekian KK, Holland HD (eds) Treatise on geochemistry, vol 4, 2nd edn. Elsevier, Oxford, pp 607–629. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-095975-7.00319-3
Siebert C, Munker C (2017) Barium isotope fractionation during subduction zone processes. Presented at 2017 Goldschmidt conference, Paris
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this entry
Cite this entry
White, W.M. (2018). Barium. In: White, W.M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Geochemistry. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39312-4_79
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39312-4_79
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-39311-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-39312-4
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences