Origin of Atmosphere
- Earth is believed to have formed about 5 billion years ago.
- In the first 500 million years, a dense atmosphere emerged from the vapor and gases that were expelled during degassing of the planet’s interior. ...
- These gases may have consisted of hydrogen (H2), water vapor, methane (CH4) , and carbon oxides.
What was early Earth's atmosphere like?
The early atmosphere was probably mostly carbon dioxide, with little or no oxygen. There were smaller proportions of water vapour, ammonia and methane. As the Earth cooled down, most of the water vapour condensed and formed the oceans.
How was Earth's atmosphere created?
How did the atmosphere form?
- History of the atmosphere. Around 4.45 billion years ago, the Earth experienced a violent collision with a planetoid called Theia about the size of Mars.
- Evolution of Earth’s atmosphere. How has the earth’s atmosphere changed over time? ...
- Timeline of Earth’s atmosphere. ...
What are facts about the atmosphere?
The atmosphere is made up of 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and smaller amounts of argon, carbon dioxide, helium, and neon. Contaminants in the atmosphere can include smoke, toxic gasses, dust, ash from volcanoes, and salt. Roughly 80% of the weight of the atmosphere is located in the troposphere, which is the layer closest to the earth.
What is the evolution of the atmosphere?
Evolution of the atmosphere, process by which Earth’s modern atmosphere arose from earlier conditions. Evidence of these changes, though indirect, is abundant. Sediments and rocks record changes in atmospheric composition from chemical reactions with Earth’s crust and biochemical processes associated with life.
What was the original atmosphere of Earth made of?
Earth's original atmosphere was probably just hydrogen and helium, because these were the main gases in the dusty, gassy disk around the Sun from which the planets formed. The Earth and its atmosphere were very hot.
When did Earth's atmosphere first form?
When, then, did oxygen first accumulate in the atmosphere? MIT scientists now have an answer. In a paper appearing today in Science Advances, the team reports that the Earth's atmosphere experienced the first significant, irreversible influx of oxygen as early as 2.33 billion years ago.
What is the origin of the atmospheric oxygen on Earth?
The answer is tiny organisms known as cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae. These microbes conduct photosynthesis: using sunshine, water and carbon dioxide to produce carbohydrates and, yes, oxygen.
What is the origin of most of Earth's atmosphere quizlet?
Earth's early atmosphere contained only small amounts of free oxygen, probably produced entirely by the reaction of sunlight with water vapor from volcanoes. The oxygen-rich atmosphere that evolved later, and upon which oxygen-breathing life now depends, was a result of the origin of photosynthesis.
What happened to Earth's first atmosphere?
Approximately 4.5 billion years ago, scientists believe that Earth collided with a planet the size of Mars. The energy from this catastrophic collision blew Earth's existing atmosphere into space, created our Moon, and caused the entire planet to melt.
Who discovered the atmosphere?
On April 28, 1902, Teisserenc de Bort announced to the French Academy of Science that he discovered a layer of the atmosphere where the temperature stays the same with altitude. He called this layer of the atmosphere the stratosphere.
Where did the oxygen in Earth's atmosphere originate quizlet?
From where did the Oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere originate? Photosynthesis from planet life and single-called organisms.
What are the four layers of the Earth's atmosphere?
From lowest to highest, the major layers are the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere and exosphere. Troposphere.
What is Earth's atmosphere made of quizlet?
The current composition of Earth's atmosphere is 78% Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen and 1% other (Argon, Carbon Dioxide Water Vapor).
How did Earth's first atmosphere and oceans form quizlet?
Theory 1a: Gases which formed the earth's early atmosphere were released from volcanoes. oceans formed when water vapour condensed as earth cooled down., and fell as rain. As icy comets rained down on the surface of the earth, they melted, adding water.
What is the origin of gasses in the atmosphere and water quizlet?
Gases: water vapour, nitrogen and carbon dioxide were released from volcanoes. The water vapor condenses as the earth cooled down and fell as rain from many years creating oceans. Simple organisms such as algae evolved and they were able to photosynthesis and absorb Co2 and give oxygen.
What were the earliest oxygen producing forms?
The earliest oxygen-producing life forms were Cyanobacteria. Besides Cyanobacteria, these tiny organisms have another name known as blue-green algae....
What was Earth like 4.5 billion years ago?
Once upon a time, about 4.5 billion years ago, the Earth was an unformed doughnut of molten rock called a synestia — and the moon was hidden in the filling.
When did oxygen start accumulating in the atmosphere?
2.4 billion years ago(To learn more about these organisms and the fossil evidence for them, watch the accompanying video "Early Fossil Life.") These organisms became so abundant that by 2.4 billion years ago the free oxygen they produced began to accumulate in the atmosphere. The effect was profound.
What was the atmosphere of the Earth?
Earth’s original atmosphere was probably just hydrogen and helium, because these were the main gases in the dusty, gassy disk around the Sun from which the planets formed. The Earth and its atmosphere were very hot. Molecules of hydrogen and helium move really fast, especially when warm.
What are the stages of the Earth's atmosphere?
Just formed Earth: Like Earth, the hydrogen (H 2) and helium (He) were very warm. These molecules of gas moved so fast they escaped Earth's gravity and eventually all drifted off into space.
What gases do volcanoes release?
Young Earth: Volcanoes released gases H 2 O (water) as steam, carbon dixoide (CO 2 ), and ammonia (NH 3 ). Carbon dioxide dissolved in seawater.
What is the second atmosphere?
Earth’s “second atmosphere” came from Earth itself. There were lots of volcanoes, many more than today, because Earth’s crust was still forming. The volcanoes released#N#steam (H 2 O, with two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom),#N#carbon dioxide (CO 2, with one carbon atoms and two oxygen atoms),#N#ammonia (NH 3, with one nitrogen atom and three hydrogen atoms). 1 steam (H 2 O, with two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom), 2 carbon dioxide (CO 2, with one carbon atoms and two oxygen atoms), 3 ammonia (NH 3, with one nitrogen atom and three hydrogen atoms).
Why were there so many volcanoes?
There were lots of volcanoes, many more than today, because Earth’s crust was still forming. The volcanoes released. steam (H 2 O, with two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom), carbon dioxide (CO 2, with one carbon atoms and two oxygen atoms), ammonia (NH 3, with one nitrogen atom and three hydrogen atoms).
How much carbon dioxide is in the air?
And carbon dioxide is only a very tiny slice (.0385% or only about 385 parts per million parts of air). But these proportions were quite likely different in Earth’s much younger days.
Is the atmosphere on Mars dense?
They are either too dense ( as on Venus) or not dense enough (as on Mars), and none of them have much oxygen, the precious gas that we Earth animals need every minute. So how did our atmosphere get to be so special? Some scientists describe three stages in the evolution of Earth’s atmosphere as it is today.
How did the atmosphere of the Earth form?
Paragraph 1：In order to understand the origin of Earth's atmosphere, we must go back to the earliest days of the solar system, before the planets themselves were formed from a disk of rocky material spinning around the young Sun. This material gradually coalesced into lumps called planetesimals as gravity and chance smashed smaller pieces together, a chaotic and violent process that became more so as planetesimals grew in size and gravitational pull. Within each orbit, collisions between planetesimals generated immense heat and energy. How violent these processes were is suggested by the odd tilt and spin of many of the planets, which indicate that each of the planets was, like a billiard ball, struck at some stage by another large body of some kind. Visual evidence of these processes can be seen by looking at the Moon. Because the Moon has no atmosphere, its surface is not subject to erosion, so it retains the marks of its early history. Its face is deeply scarred by millions of meteoric impacts, as you can see on a clear night with a pair of binoculars. The early Earth did not have much of an atmosphere. Before it grew to full size, its gravitational pull was insufficient to prevent gases from drifting off into space, while the solar wind (the great stream of atomic particles emitted from the Sun) had already driven away much of the gaseous material from the inner orbits of the solar system. So we must imagine the early Earth as a mixture of rocky materials, metals, and trapped gases, subject to constant bombardment by smaller planetesimals and without much of an atmosphere.
Why did the Earth heat up?
Paragraph 2：As it began to reach full size, Earth heated up, partly because of collisions with other planetesimals and partly because of increasing internal pressures as it grew in size. In addition, the early Earth contained abundant radioactive materials, also a source of heat.
What happens to gases when the Earth is formed?
O Once Earth had gone through the final stages of its formation, gases bubbled to the surface and were held by Earth's gravitational field to form the atmosphere.
What gases bubbled up to the surface of the Earth?
Paragraph 5：The lightest materials of all, including gases such as hydrogen and helium, bubbled through Earth's interior to the surface. So we can imagine the surface of the early Earth as a massive volcanic field. And we can judge pretty well what gases bubbled up to that surface by analyzing the mixture of gases emitted by volcanoes. These include hydrogen, helium, methane, water vapor, nitrogen, ammonia, and hydrogen sulfide. Other materials, including large amounts of water vapor, were brought in by cometary bombardments. Much of the hydrogen and helium escaped; but once Earth was fully formed, it was large enough for its gravitational field to hold most of the remaining gases, and these formed Earth's first stable atmosphere.
What materials drifted downward and mixed with denser materials as they reached Earth's core?
O Silicates such as mineral quartz drifted downward and mixed with denser materials as they reached Earth's core.
Which layer of Earth's crust is a denser layer of silicates?
O Lighter elements from Earth's interior rose and formed the mantle, a denser layer of silicates around the core, and the crust, a thinner layer of silicates at Earth's surface.
Why was the early Earth bombarded with much more frequency and violence than other planetesimals?
O Early Earth's lack of an atmosphere explains why it was bombarded with much more frequency and violence than other planetesimals.
What is the atmosphere of Earth?
The atmosphere of Earth, commonly known as air, is the layer of gases retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing for liquid water to exist on the Earth's surface, absorbing ultraviolet solar radiation, ...
Where is the atmosphere located?
Fifty percent of the total mass of the atmosphere is located in the lower 5.6 km (3.5 mi; 18,000 ft) of the troposphere. Nearly all atmospheric water vapor or moisture is found in the troposphere, so it is the layer where most of Earth's weather takes place.
How did plate tectonics influence the long-term evolution of the atmosphere?
The constant re-arrangement of continents by plate tectonics influences the long-term evolution of the atmosphere by transferring carbon dioxide to and from large continental carbonate stores. Free oxygen did not exist in the atmosphere until about 2.4 billion years ago during the Great Oxygenation Event and its appearance is indicated by the end of the banded iron formations .
What is the study of the atmosphere called?
The study of Earth's atmosphere and its processes is called atmospheric science (aerology), and includes multiple subfields, such as climatology and atmospheric physics. Early pioneers in the field include Léon Teisserenc de Bort and Richard Assmann. The study of historic atmosphere is called paleoclimatology .
How high is the equator?
It extends from Earth's surface to an average height of about 12 km (7.5 mi; 39,000 ft), although this altitude varies from about 9 km (5.6 mi; 30,000 ft) at the geographic poles to 17 km (11 mi; 56,000 ft) at the Equator, with some variation due to weather.
How much water vapor is in the atmosphere?
The concentration of water vapor (a greenhouse gas) varies significantly from around 10 ppm by volume in the coldest portions of the atmosphere to as much as 5% by volume in hot, humid air masses, and concentrations of other atmospheric gases are typically quoted in terms of dry air (without water vapor).
How much does the atmosphere weigh?
The atmosphere has a mass of about 5.15 × 10 18 kg, three quarters of which is within about 11 km (6.8 mi; 36,000 ft) of the surface. The atmosphere becomes thinner with increasing altitude, with no definite boundary between the atmosphere and outer space.
What was the original atmosphere?
Earth’s original atmosphere was rich in methane, ammonia, water vapour, and the noble gas neon, but it lacked free oxygen. It is likely that hundreds of millions of years separated the first biological production of oxygen by unicellular organisms and its eventual accumulation in the atmosphere.
How long has the atmosphere been around?
A complete reconstruction of the origin and development of the atmosphere would include details of its size and composition at all times during the 4.5 billion years since Earth’s formation. This goal could not be achieved without knowledge of the pathways and rates of supply and consumption of all atmospheric constituents at all times. Information regarding these particular processes, however, is incomplete even for the present atmosphere, and there is almost no direct evidence regarding atmospheric constituents and their rates of supply and consumption in the past.
What is the crust?
The atmosphere as part of the crust. To the Earth scientist, the crust includes not only the top layer of solid material (soil and rocks to a depth of 6 to 70 km [4 to 44 miles], separated from the underlying mantle by differences in density and by susceptibility to surficial geologic processes) but also the hydrosphere (oceans, ...
What was the atmosphere made of before life?
Before life began on the planet, Earth's atmosphere was largely made up of nitrogen and carbon dioxide gases. After photosynthesizing organisms multiplied on Earth's surface and in the oceans, much of the carbon dioxide was replaced with oxygen. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. The composition of the atmosphere encodes a great deal ...
What record past changes in atmospheric composition due to chemical reactions with Earth’s crust?
Ancient sediments and rocks record past changes in atmospheric composition due to chemical reactions with Earth’s crust and, in particular, to biochemical processes associated with life. abundance of oxygen. A “best guess” reconstruction of the abundance of O 2 in Earth's atmosphere as a function of time. The O 2 abundance axis is logarithmic.
What is the evolution of the atmosphere?
Evolution of the atmosphere, the development of Earth ’s atmosphere across geologic time. The process by which the current atmosphere arose from earlier conditions is complex; however, evidence related to the evolution of Earth’s atmosphere, though indirect, is abundant. Ancient sediments and rocks record past changes in atmospheric composition due ...
What is the process of delivering gas to the atmosphere?
A process that delivers a gas to the atmosphere is termed a source for the gas . Depending on the question under consideration, it can make sense to speak in terms of either an ultimate source—the process that delivered a component of the volatile inventory to Earth—or an immediate source—the process that sustains the abundance of a component of the present atmosphere. Any process that removes gas either chemically, as in the consumption of oxygen during the process of combustion, or physically, as in the loss of hydrogen to space at the top of the atmosphere, is called a sink.
What is the atmosphere of Earth?
What is Earth’s atmosphere? Earth’s atmosphere is similar to a jacket for our planet. It surrounds our planet, keeps us warm, gives us oxygen to breathe, and it is where our weather happens. Earth’s atmosphere has six layers: the troposphere, the stratosphere, the mesosphere, the thermosphere, the ionosphere, and the exosphere.
Why is the Earth a jacket?
A jacket for the planet. Earth is a great planet to live on because it has a wonderful atmosphere around it. This jacket of gases does a lot for us. It keeps us warm, it gives us oxygen to breathe, and it’s where our weather happens. The atmosphere surrounds our planet like the peel of an orange. But it’s not the same everywhere.
Is the atmosphere the same everywhere?
The atmosphere surrounds our planet like the peel of an orange. But it’s not the same everywhere. It has different layers with different qualities.
What is the main source of oxygen in the atmosphere?
Once plant life had developed sufficiently and once plants had moved from the oceans onto land, photosynthesis became the main source of atmospheric oxygen.
How old is the Earth?
First, Point 1: the earth is thought to be between 4.5 and 4.6 billion years old. If you want to remember the earth is a few billion years old that is probably close enough. A relatively minor point shown in the figure: the formation of the earth's molten iron core was important because it gave the earth a magnetic field. The magnetic field deflects the solar wind and prevents the solar wind from blowing away our present day atmosphere.
What gases are released by volcanoes?
Carbon dioxide dissolved in the oceans and was slowly turned into rock. Nitrogen containing compounds like ammonia ( NH3 ) and molecular nitrogen ( N2 ) are also emitted by volcanoes. I'm guessing that the nitrogen in NH3 reacted with other gases to produce N2. Molecular nitrogen is pretty nonreactive so once in the air its concentration was able to built up over time.
What gases escaped the atmosphere?
The early atmosphere either escaped into space (the earth was hot and light weight gases like hydrogen and helium were moving around with enough speed that they could overcome the pull of the earth's gravity) or was swept into space by the solar wind .
Where does oxygen come from?
Oxygen is thought to have come from photo-dissociation of water vapor and carbon dioxide by ultraviolet (UV) light (the high energy UV light is able to split the H20 and CO2 molecules into pieces). Two of the pieces, O and OH, then react to form O2 and H.
Do volcanoes emit gases?
Volcanoes also emit lots of other gases, many of them are very poisonous. Some of them are shown on the right side of the figure. The gases in the "also" list were mentioned in a lot of online sources, the gases in the "perhaps" list were mentioned less frequently. The relative amounts of these "also" and "perhaps" gases seems to depend a lot on volcano type.
When did oxygen become a major component of the atmosphere?
But roughly 2.45 billion years ago, the isotopic ratio of sulfur transformed, indicating that for the first time oxygen was becoming a significant component of Earth's atmosphere, according to a 2000 paper in Science. At roughly the same time (and for eons thereafter), oxidized iron began to appear in ancient soils and bands ...
When did oxygen take up residence in the atmosphere?
It took up residence in atmosphere around 2.45 billion years ago ," says geochemist Dick Holland, a visiting scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. "It looks as if there's a significant time interval between the appearance of oxygen-producing organisms and the actual oxygenation of the atmosphere.". So a date and a culprit can be fixed ...
What are the microbes that make oxygen?
The answer is tiny organisms known as cyanobacteria , or blue-green algae. These microbes conduct photosynthesis: using sunshine, water and carbon dioxide to produce carbohydrates and, yes, oxygen. In fact, all the plants on Earth incorporate symbiotic cyanobacteria (known as chloroplasts) to do their photosynthesis for them down to this day.
Why is oxygen so hard to keep around?
That's because oxygen wants to react; it can form compounds with nearly every other element on the periodic table.
Where does breathable air come from?
The breathable air we enjoy today originated from tiny organisms, although the details remain lost in geologic time. It's hard to keep oxygen molecules around, despite the fact that it's the third-most abundant element in the universe, forged in the superhot, superdense core of stars.
What are the factors that affect oxygen levels?
Climate, volcanism, plate tectonics all played a key role in regulating the oxygen level during various time periods. Yet no one has come up with a rock-solid test to determine the precise oxygen content of the atmosphere at any given time from the geologic record. But one thing is clear—the origins of oxygen in Earth's atmosphere derive from one thing: life.
Overview
The atmosphere of Earth or air is the layer of gases retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing for liquid water to exist on the Earth's surface, absorbing ultraviolet solar radiation, warming the surface through heat retention (greenhouse effect), and reducing temperature extreme…
Composition
The three major constituents of Earth's atmosphere are nitrogen, oxygen, and argon. Water vapor accounts for roughly 0.25% of the atmosphere by mass. The concentration of water vapor (a greenhouse gas) varies significantly from around 10 ppm by mole fraction in the coldest portions of the atmosphere to as much as 5% by mole fraction in hot, humid air masses, and concentrations of …
Stratification
In general, air pressure and density decrease with altitude in the atmosphere. However, the temperature has a more complicated profile with altitude, and may remain relatively constant or even increase with altitude in some regions (see the temperature section, below). Because the general pattern of the temperature/altitude profile, or lapse rate, is constant and measurable by mean…
Physical properties
The average atmospheric pressure at sea level is defined by the International Standard Atmosphere as 101325 pascals (760.00 Torr; 14.6959 psi; 760.00 mmHg). This is sometimes referred to as a unit of standard atmospheres (atm). Total atmospheric mass is 5.1480×10 kg (1.135×10 lb), about 2.5% less than would be inferred from the average sea level pressure and Earth's area of 51007.2 m…
Optical properties
Solar radiation (or sunlight) is the energy Earth receives from the Sun. Earth also emits radiation back into space, but at longer wavelengths that humans cannot see. Part of the incoming and emitted radiation is absorbed or reflected by the atmosphere. In May 2017, glints of light, seen as twinkling from an orbiting satellite a million miles away, were found to be reflected light from ice crystals i…
Circulation
Atmospheric circulation is the large-scale movement of air through the troposphere, and the means (with ocean circulation) by which heat is distributed around Earth. The large-scale structure of the atmospheric circulation varies from year to year, but the basic structure remains fairly constant because it is determined by Earth's rotation rate and the difference in solar radiation betwee…
Evolution of Earth's atmosphere
The first atmosphere consisted of gases in the solar nebula, primarily hydrogen. There were probably simple hydrides such as those now found in the gas giants (Jupiter and Saturn), notably water vapor, methane and ammonia.
Outgassing from volcanism, supplemented by gases produced during the late heavy bombardment of Earth by huge asteroids, produced the next atmosphere…
Images from space
On October 19, 2015, NASA started a website containing daily images of the full sunlit side of Earth at https://epic.gsfc.nasa.gov/. The images are taken from the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) and show Earth as it rotates during a day.