C13.2 Our evolving atmosphere Flashcards
How can carbon dioxide be absorbed into plants?
Plants can undergo photosynthesis and absorb the carbon
How are sedimentary carbonate rocks such as limestone made?
Over millions of years skeletons and shells build up at the bottom of the ocean
There they become covered with layer upon layer of fine sediment
Eventually pressure caused by the layers cause sedimentary rocks to form
How was coal formed?
Coal is classed as a sedimentary rock
Coal was formed from thick deposits of plant materials and compressed over millions of years
How did the carbon in the early atmosphere get removed?
Dissolved in water of the oceans
What do volcanoes produce?
Nitrogen gas
What % of the atmosphere contains what gases?
Nitrogen - 78%
Oxygen - 21%
Argon - 0.9%
Carbon dioxide - 0.04%
How were ammonia and methane removed from the early atmosphere?
By reacting with oxygen - once oxygen had been formed by photsynthesis