L
Large-Ion Lithophile Elements
Catherine Chauvel1 and Roberta L. Rudnick2
1
ISTerre, Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France
2
Department of Geology, University of Maryland, College
Park, MD, USA
Definition
The term large-ion lithophile element (or LILE) is frequently
used but poorly defined in the geochemical literature. The
word “lithophile” comes from the classification of elements
suggested by Goldschmidt over a hundred years ago. It
describes elements that have an affinity for silicate phases in
the Earth. As shown in Figure 1 from White (2013), the
lithophile elements are numerous and generally correspond
to elements located at both ends of the periodic table.
The large-ion lithophile elements represent only a subset
of these lithophile elements and refer to the trace elements
characterized by large radius to charge ratio (or low field
strength elements; see Figure 2 below).
Origin of the Term and LILE Geochemistry
The term was first used by Gast (1972) to encompass the
cations K, Rb, Sr, Cs, Ba, REE, Th, and U. Gast also included
Li as a LILE, since it has a large radius to charge ratio, even
though it is small. Because of the confusion in the literature
# Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016
W.M. White (ed.), Encyclopedia of Geochemistry,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-39193-9_232-1
regarding usage of LILE, it is recommended that the term be
restricted to lithophile trace elements having large radius to
charge ratios and which also have ionic radii greater than
those of Ca2+ and Na1+ (100 and 102 picometers), the largest
cations common to rock forming minerals. By this definition,
the list of LILE is restricted to K, Rb, Sr, Cs, Ba, and Eu2+.
Because of their large radii, LILE behave incompatibly
(see entry “▶ Incompatible Elements”) during mantle melting
and so are highly enriched in mantle melts relative to their
source. They are enriched in intraplate basalts (Hofmann,
1997) and island arc basalts (Kelemen et al., 2014) relative
to more compatible trace elements, but they are depleted in
mid-ocean ridge basalts, demonstrating that these lavas derive
from a mantle source that experienced prior melt extraction
(see entry “▶ Earth’s Mantle Geochemistry”). The LILE are
strongly enriched in the upper continental crust (Rudnick and
Gao, 2014) but occur in lower concentrations in the deep
continental crust due to its overall more mafic character and
selective loss of some LILE during high-grade metamorphism
(see entry “▶ Earth’s Continental Crust”). Between 15–55 %
of the Earth’s LILE budget is found in the continental crust
(Rudnick and Fountain, 1995).
Summary
The recommended list of large-ion lithophile elements is K,
Rb, Sr, Cs, Ba, and Eu2+.
2 Large-Ion Lithophile Elements

Large-Ion Lithophile Elements, Figure 1 Goldschmidt’s classification of the elements (From White, 2013).

Large-Ion Lithophile Elements, Figure 2 Ionic radius versus ionic charge diagram showing the LILE in red. Major cations are shown in large
purple symbols and other trace elements are shown as small blue symbols.
Large-Ion Lithophile Elements 3

Cross-References Kelemen, P. B., Hanghøj, K., and Greene, A. R., 2014. One view of the
geochemistry of subduction-related magmatic arcs, with an emphasis
on primitive andesite and lower crust. In Rudnick, R. L. (ed.), The
▶ Alkali and Alkaline Earth Elements Crust, Holland, H. D., and Turekian, K. K. (eds.), Treatise on Geo-
▶ Earth’s Continental Crust chemistry, 2nd edn. Oxford: Elsevier, pp. 749–806.
▶ Earth’s Mantle Geochemistry Rudnick, R. L., and Fountain, D. M., 1995. Nature and composition of
▶ Incompatible Elements the continental crust: a lower crustal perspective. Reviews of Geo-
physics, 33, 267–309.
Rudnick, R. L., and Gao, S., 2014. Composition of the continental crust.
In Rudnick, R. L. (ed.), The Crust, Holland, H. D., and Turekian,
References K. K. (eds.), Treatise on Geochemistry, 2nd edn. Elsevier, Oxford,
pp. 1–51.
Gast, P. W., 1972. The chemical composition and structure of the moon. White, W.M., 2013. Geochemistry. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Chichester,
The Moon, 5, 121–148. UK, 660p.
Hofmann, A. W., 1997. Mantle geochemistry: the message form oceanic
volcanism. Nature, 385, 219–229.