What percentage of Mercury's bulk composition is metallic material?
Answer
approximately 70% metallic material and only 30% silicate material by volume
Mercury possesses an extreme internal differentiation, meaning its bulk composition is heavily skewed toward metal content compared to other terrestrial worlds. Specifically, data indicates that this small planet is composed of about 70% metallic material, while only 30% of its volume consists of silicate material. This ratio is dramatically disproportionate when compared to neighbors like Earth, which, despite being far more massive, is less metal-rich overall when assessing the ratio of metal to rock across its entire structure. This high metallic ratio is the fundamental reason Mercury is often dubbed 'the iron planet.'
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