What are alkaline earth metals?

The alkaline earth metals are six chemical elements in the column (group) 2 of the Periodic table. They are beryllium (Be), magnesium (Mg), calcium (Ca), strontium (Sr), barium (Ba), and radium (Ra). They have very similar properties: they are all shiny, silvery-white, somewhat reactive metals at standard temperature and pressure. All these metals exist in nature and hence they are known as alkaline earth metals.