Question

What layer of earth contains abundant oxygen, which can combine with other elements to create oxide minerals?

Answer 1

the crust

Earths crust contains a lot of oxygen. The oxygen can combine with other elements to create oxide minerals. Oxides contain one or two metal elements combined with oxygen. Oxides are different from silicates, because they do not contain silicon. Many important metals are found as oxides. For example, hematite and magnetite are both oxides that contain iron. Hematite  Fe 2 O 3   has a ratio of two iron atoms to three oxygen atoms. Magnetite  Fe 3 O 4   has a ratio of three iron atoms to four oxygen atoms. Notice that the word magnetite contains the word magnet. " Magnetite   Figure below   is a magnetic mineral.