The rarest naturally occurring element on Earth is astatine. There is less than one gram present in the Earth’s crust at any given time [3][5]. Astatine is an extremely rare semi-metal that results from the decay of uranium and thorium and is highly unstable, with its most stable isotope, astatine-210, having a half-life of only 8.1 hours [2][3]. The scarcity and rapid decay of astatine make it challenging to study, and any macroscopic specimen would immediately vaporize due to the heat of its own radioactivity [3][5].

10 Rarest Elements on Earth

What is the rarest natural element?

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