Lanthanides

The lanthanides are a series of fifteen metallic elements, from lanthanum (La, Z = 57) to lutetium (Lu, Z = 71). They are placed in a separate row beneath the main body of the periodic table to keep the table compact. Together with scandium and yttrium, they are often called the rare earth elements — although most are not actually rare in the Earth's crust.

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Position in the Periodic Table

The lanthanides belong to period 6 and fill the 4f electron subshell. In the full-length periodic table, they would be inserted between barium (Ba, Z = 56) and hafnium (Hf, Z = 72). However, this would make the table impractically wide, so they are conventionally displayed as a separate row below.

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The Lanthanide Elements