Editing Goldschmidt classification (section)

{{Short description|Geochemical classification}}
{{More citations needed|date=January 2010}}
The '''Goldschmidt classification''',<ref>
{{cite journal
|last= Goldschmidt|first= Victor
|title= The principles of distribution of chemical elements in minerals and rocks. The seventh Hugo Müller Lecture, delivered before the Chemical Society
|journal= [[Journal of the Chemical Society]]
|date= 17 March 1937
|pages= 655–673|doi= 10.1039/JR9370000655}}<!--|access-date=30 June 2012-->
</ref><ref name=Albarede>{{Cite book |last=Albarède |first=Francis |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/9780511807435/type/book |title=Geochemistry: An Introduction |date=2009-06-25 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-88079-4 |edition=2 |doi=10.1017/cbo9780511807435.005}}</ref>
developed by [[Victor Goldschmidt]] (1888–1947), is a [[Geochemistry|geochemical classification]] which groups the [[chemical element]]s within the Earth according to their preferred host phases into lithophile ([[Rock (geology)|rock]]-loving), siderophile ([[iron]]-loving), chalcophile ([[sulfide ore]]-loving or [[chalcogen]]-loving), and atmophile (gas-loving) or volatile (the element, or a compound in which it occurs, is liquid or gaseous at ambient surface conditions).

Some elements have affinities to more than one phase. The main affinity is given in the table below and a discussion of each group follows that table.

{{Periodic table (Goldschmidt classification)}}