Yesterday I said it seemed reasonable that Earth started 4.6 Billion years ago with an atmosphere 100 times the current pressure and almost all CO2. (About 10^18 tonnes). Where did it all go?
Photosynthesis only evolved about 3.5 billion years ago, so there were no plants waiting to grow like crazy. The answer was in the oceans.
When CO2 dissolves in water, it makes carbonic acid, H2CO3, the fizz in soda water. It is pleasantly acid when the CO2 pressure is 1.2 atmospheres and bubbles away in the wine glass or beer stein.
However, with a pressure of 100 atmospheres, it is 100 times as strong, and becomes a strong acid with a pH of 2.9, like very strong vinegar. It then dissolved many of the original silicate rocks, making sand and limestone. Initially the limestone was an inorganic sludge, but when life emerged it was converted to the limestone fossils we have today.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Awake AT 3 AM -
For some reason, I seem to get along with much less sleep than the 8 hours my sainted mother recommended. I go to sleep at 10-11 PM, and typically wake at 2-3 AM, fully rested and ready to think about interesting things (but avoiding worrisome ones).
As a Physical Chemist I'm equipped to understand the macrocosmos and the microcosmos. I read a lot and ask myself questions never asked before. I then put things together that have never been joined before.
For instance, "Venus is Earth's sister planet, but she was born too close to the sun and lost her water - and life, while we retained our water and generated life. But we were both born from the same cloud of stardust/gasdust.
Our spacecraft have been to Venus and they find that the atmosphere is composed of 89 atmospheres of carbon dioxide, CO2, and 3 atm of nitrogen, N2. From this I infer that when Earth was formed 4.6 Billion years ago, we probably had a similar atmosphere, slightly denser because we are larger. Let's say Earth had 100 atm of CO2 and 3 of nitrogen. It is hard to concieve of an atmosphere 100 times as dense as we have today. A 1mph wind would blow you over!
If Earth started with such a large quantity of CO2, where did we put it?
This and other questions will be the subject of this blog.
As a Physical Chemist I'm equipped to understand the macrocosmos and the microcosmos. I read a lot and ask myself questions never asked before. I then put things together that have never been joined before.
For instance, "Venus is Earth's sister planet, but she was born too close to the sun and lost her water - and life, while we retained our water and generated life. But we were both born from the same cloud of stardust/gasdust.
Our spacecraft have been to Venus and they find that the atmosphere is composed of 89 atmospheres of carbon dioxide, CO2, and 3 atm of nitrogen, N2. From this I infer that when Earth was formed 4.6 Billion years ago, we probably had a similar atmosphere, slightly denser because we are larger. Let's say Earth had 100 atm of CO2 and 3 of nitrogen. It is hard to concieve of an atmosphere 100 times as dense as we have today. A 1mph wind would blow you over!
If Earth started with such a large quantity of CO2, where did we put it?
This and other questions will be the subject of this blog.
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