1.2 - Carbon Cluedo

Question 1

Sedimentary Carbonate Rocks

Answer 1

e.g. limestone with high concentration of calcium carbonate.

Question 2

How Are Sedimentary Carbonate Rocks (Limestone) Formed?

Answer 2

Phytoplankton extract the carbon from the water and the carbon is sequestered in their shells. The accumulation of these shells form limestone at the bottom of the ocean. Tectonics fold & uplift the limestone from the ocean bed to form mountain ranges causing it to be chemically weathered by rainwater and find it’s way back into the ocean e.g. Himalayas.

Question 3

Hydrocarbon Formation

Answer 3

The remains of living organic material in anaerobic conditions, form chains of hydrogen/carbon bonds, which is then stored in the pores of clastic sedimentary basins.

Question 4

Hydrocarbons

Answer 4

Chains of hydrogen and oxygen bonds

Question 5

By-Product Of Hydrocarbon Formation

Answer 5

Gas which migrates upwards through the shale until it meets cap rock.

Question 6

Coal Formation

Answer 6

Forms from the remains of trees and land-based plants. Organic material starts in peats but heat and pressure convert it into coal.

Question 7

Sequestered

Answer 7

Hidden away

Question 8

Different Carbon Stores

Answer 8

Terrestrial Geological
Oceanic (Deep)
Terrestrial Soil
Oceanic (Surface)

Question 9

Terrestrial Geological

Answer 9

Sedimentary rocks which is a LT store as they slowly cycle over millenia

Question 10

Oceanic (Deep)

Answer 10

Most carbon is dissolved in organic stores and cycled very slowly.

Question 11

Terrestrial Soil

Answer 11

Micro-organisms break most organic matter down to CO2 in a process than can take days in a humid climate to decades in a cold climate.

Question 12

Oceanic (Surface)

Answer 12

Rapidly exchanged with the atmosphere through physical processes (CO2 dissolving into water), biological processes/(plankton), some of this carbon then sinks into the deeper pool.

Question 13

Atmospheric Store

Answer 13

CO2 and CH4 store carbon as GHGs with a lifetime of up to 100 years.

Question 14

Terrestrial Ecosystems

Answer 14

CO2 is taken from the atmosphere by plant photosynthesis, carbon is stored organically, especially in trees, where there’s rapid interchange with atmosphere over seconds/minutes.

Question 15

Plankton

Answer 15

Microscopic organisms in the ocean that convert light energy to chemical energy through photosynthesis

Question 16

Caprock

Answer 16

Impermeable rock layers that seal the top of reservoirs and other geological formations.