Johnny Lee’s 1980 recording of “Lookin’ for Love” in all the wrong places is a mantra that most scientists and engineers eventually learn. Not love, but when confronted with the conundrum of not finding an object where it should be, the first response, before questioning the theory, is to look elsewhere.
This is further encapsulated in Arthur Conan Doyle’s “Fate of the Evangeline” when Holmes quips, “Exclude the impossible and what is left, however improbable, must be the truth.”
Recent research suggests that Earth and Mars originally had higher concentrations of moderately volatile elements (MVEs), such as copper. These elements were likely abundant in the early formation of Earth and Mars but were depleted by violent cosmic events, such as collisions with meteorites.
These collisions during planetary formation caused large-scale vaporization, leading to the loss of these crustal sources of MVEs into space but not necessarily those present in the mantle or core. While this new understanding challenges traditional theories about why MVEs are not in higher concentrations on Earth, it may also mean that we need to look not only to space for the lost MVEs but also to other deeper and less explored crevices and crannies here on Earth.
Additional areas of exploration on Earth may include hydrothermal vents on the ocean floors, deep crustal and mantle areas, tectonic boundaries, and active volcanic provinces.
Source: …Earth’s Missing Elements by Kim Baptista ASU, 2025. Lookin’ for Love written by Morrison, Ryan, and Mallette. Graphic: Earth Collision, Grok, 2025.
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