7.5 Gases In The Atmosphere Flashcards
How were fossil fuels originally formed?
Animals are the plants that absorbed carbon dioxide and much of the carbon ended up in plant and animal remains as sedimentary rocks and fossil fuels
How was limestone originally formed?
Shells and skeletons of marine organisms
What do fossil fuels contain and where do they come from?
Fossil fuels contain carbon and hydrogen from plants and animals
Name 2 forms that carbon became locked up in
- as fossil fuels
* as sedimentary rocks
Name 2 ways that sedimentary rocks were formed
- formed from animal and plant remains as they contained carbon
- carbon dioxide dissolved in the ocean and formed insoluble carbonate compounds that were deposited on the seabed as sedimentary rocks
What % of the air today is nitrogen?
78% nitrogen
What % of the air today is oxygen?
21% oxygen
What gases make up the final 1% of the earths air?
- carbon dioxide
- argon
- water vapour
- other gas traces (noble gases)
How can we separate the gases in the air and why?
By fractional distillation because the gases in the air have different boiling points
What are the desired products of the fractional distillation of air?
- pure oxygen
* liquid nitrogen
How does the fractional distillation of air work?
The air is cooled to below -200*c and fed into a fractional distillation column, the column gets cooler as you move up it, where the different gases can be separated. Further distillation is needed to separate argon and oxygen
What parts of the animals and plants remains make up the fossil fuels and which parts make up the sedimentary rocks?
Fossil fuels: soft tissues
Sedimentary rock: bones, teeth, shells
When ammonia reacts with oxygen, what are the products?
Nitrogen and water
When methane reacts with oxygen, what are the products?
Carbon dioxide and water
Where did a lot of the carbon dioxide end up in the early atmosphere?
Taken up by plants for photosynthesis
