Alkaline earth metals are not found in their free state in nature. Their electron configurations contain two outer electrons. Because they easily give up these two outer electrons, what type of bond do they typically form? covalent hydrogen ionic metallic

Alkaline earth metals (such as beryllium, magnesium, calcium, strontium, barium, and radium) have two electrons in their outermost energy level. These metals tend to lose these two valence electrons easily to achieve a stable electron configuration similar to the nearest noble gas, resulting in the formation of positively charged ions ( ). Since they form ions by electron transfer rather than sharing electrons, the bonds they typically form with non-metals are ionic bonds.