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LITHOEN

Chemical element

Sulfur

The element that makes sulfide minerals possible, and therefore the principal carrier of chalcophile metals.

Brassy metallic cubic pyrite crystals on a pale mineral matrix.
Pyrite from Dreislar, Germany. Iron disulfide is the commonest sulfide mineral; its formation requires reducing conditions, and its breakdown on exposure to oxygen and water is what drives acid generation from sulfide-bearing rock. Locality: Dreislar, Germany.

Hannes Grobe, CC BY-SA 4.0 · CC-BY-SA-4.0 · source · Derivative: Downscaled to 1000 px wide by the Wikimedia thumbnail service; no cropping, no colour or content alteration.

Classification

atomic number
16
symbol
S
block
p

How this record is known

3
Settled consensus
Cited as the accepted position of the discipline.

3 of 3 claims on this page cite at least one registered source. Counts describe how each statement is known, not how likely it is to be true.

What Lithoen records

Each claim states how it is known and cites its evidence.

Established16 protons

Sulfur has atomic number 16: its nucleus contains 16 protons, and that is what makes it sulfur.

  • definition basis: Atomic number is definitional: an atom with a different proton count is a different element, whatever else it shares.

Evidence support: Supported by the cited evidence one source

Evidence: Commission on Isotopic Abundances and Atomic Weights (IUPAC) 2024 Primary authority

Established32.059–32.076 u

The standard atomic weight of sulfur is given as the interval [32.059, 32.076], because its isotopic composition varies measurably between normal materials.

  • definition basis: CIAAW Standard Atomic Weights 2024. An interval is not an uncertainty: it is the range the value genuinely takes across normal materials.
  • precision note: A standard atomic weight is a property of the element as found in normal materials, not the mass of any individual atom.

Evidence support: Supported by the cited evidence one source

Evidence: Commission on Isotopic Abundances and Atomic Weights (IUPAC) 2024 Primary authority

In the knowledge graph

Record last updated 2026-09-06. Corrections follow the published corrections policy; superseded claims are retained, never silently edited.