Period 3 element fresh mineral waters. "Aluminium" (symbol Al) or "aluminum" (American English) is a silvery white member of the boron group of chemical elements and a post-transition metal. It is not soluble in water under normal circumstances. Aluminium is the third most abundant element (after oxygen and silicon), and the most abundant metal, in the Earth's crust. It makes up about 8% by weight of the Earth's solid surface. Aluminium metal is too reactive chemically to occur natively. Instead, it is found combined in over 270 different minerals. The chief ore of aluminium is bauxite. Aluminium is remarkable for the metal's low
Chemical element neutrons) for a particular isotope of an element, with this number combined with the pertinent element's symbol. IUPAC prefers that isotope symbols be written in superscript notation when practical, for example C and U. However, other notations, such as carbon-12 and uranium-235, or C-12 and U-235, are also used. As a special case, the three naturally occurring isotopes of the element hydrogen are often specified as H for H (protium), D for H (deuterium), and T for H (tritium). This convention is easier to use in chemical equations, replacing the need to write out the mass number for each atom.