Magnesium (Mg), chemical element, one of the alkaline-earth metals of Group 2 (IIa) of the periodic table, and the lightest structural metal. Its compounds are widely used in construction and medicine, and magnesium is one of the elements essential to all cellular life. Continue reading from Encyclopedia Britannica
The first person to recognise that magnesium was an element was Joseph Black at Edinburgh in 1755. He distinguished magnesia (magnesium oxide, MgO) from lime (calcium oxide, CaO) although both were produced by heating similar kinds of carbonate rocks, magnesite and limestone respectively. Another magnesium mineral called meerschaum (magnesium silicate) was reported by Thomas Henry in 1789, who said that it was much used in Turkey to make pipes for smoking tobacco.
An impure form of metallic magnesium was first produced in 1792 by Anton Rupprecht who heated magnesia with charcoal. A pure, but tiny, amount of the metal was isolated in 1808 by Humphry Davy by the electrolysis of magnesium oxide. However, it was the French scientist, Antoine-Alexandre-Brutus Bussy who made a sizeable amount of the metal in 1831 by reacting magnesium chloride with potassium, and he then studied its properties. Continue reading from Royal Society of Chemistry
The metal can be mixed with other metals, particularly aluminum, for use in making car bodies, drink cans and other items that need to be light and strong. Magnesium is born in stars, when, under extreme temperatures, helium and neon fuse. It's the eighth-most abundant element in the universe, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The United States holds an estimated 65 metric tons of magnesium in natural magnesite deposits, according to the USGS. Of that, 88 percent is found in Nevada. Magnesium makes up 2 percent of the Earth's crust, but you won't see this silvery, light metal in nature. This versatile element occurs naturally only in combination with other elements, such as carbon, calcium and oxygen, as in the common mineral dolomite. The word "magnesium" comes from the name of the Greek region Magnesia, where compounds of this element occur naturally. Continue reading from LiveScience
