section_path: Characteristics/Occurrence
section_name: Occurrence
paragraph_text: Occurrence
  
  Copper is produced in massive stars and is present in the Earth's crust in a proportion of about 50 parts per million (ppm). In nature, copper occurs in a variety of minerals, including native copper, copper sulfides such as chalcopyrite, bornite, digenite, covellite, and chalcocite, copper sulfosalts such as tetrahedite-tennantite, and enargite, copper carbonates such as azurite and malachite, and as copper(I) or copper(II) oxides such as cuprite and tenorite, respectively. The largest mass of elemental copper discovered weighed 420 tonnes and was found in 1857 on the Keweenaw Peninsula in Michigan, US. Native copper is a polycrystal, with the largest single crystal ever described measuring 4.4 × 3.2 × 3.2 cm. Copper is the 26th most abundant element in Earth's crust, representing 50 ppm compared with 75 ppm for zinc, and 14 ppm for lead.
  
  Typical background concentrations of copper do not exceed 1 ng/m in the atmosphere; 150 mg/kg in soil; 30 mg/kg in vegetation; 2 μg/L in freshwater and 0.5 μg/L in seawater.