EQ1; Maintenance of planetary health

Question 1

Define the geological carbon cycle

Answer 1

Natural cycle that moves carbon between land, oceans and atmosphere, here there tends to be a natural balance between carbon production and absorption within the cycle.

Question 2

What are the 6 important natural stores and fluxes of the natural carbon cycle ?

Answer 2

• terrestrial carbon held within the mantle - released until the atmosphere as CO2 when volcanoes erupt ‘outgassing’
• CO2 within the atmosphere combines with rainfall to produce weak carbon acid (acid rain) dissolves carbon rich rocks , releasing bicarbonates (chemical weathering)
• rivers transport weathered carbon and calcium sediments to the oceans, where they are deposited
• carbon in organic matter from plants and from animal shells and skeletons sinks to the ocean bed when they die (build up strata of coal, chalk and limestone)
• carbon-rich rocks are subducted along plate boundaries
• presence of intense heating along subduction plate boundaries metamorphoses sedimentary rocks by baking ( creating metamorphic rocks) - CO2 is released by metamorphism of rocks rich in carbonates during this process

Question 3

Where is geological carbon from ?

Answer 3

Formation of sedimentary carbonate rocks like limestone and chalk

Question 4

Where is biologically derived carbon ?

Answer 4

Stored in shale , coal and other sedimentary rocks

Question 5

What is the bio-geochemical cycle ?

Answer 5

The carbon cycle where biological and chemical processes determine just how much of the carbon available on the earth’s surface is stored or released at any time

Question 6

where is most carbon stored in the geological C cycle?

Answer 6

most carbon is locked in the terrestrial stores of the long term geological cycle

Question 7

what are 4 spheres of earth involved in the Carbon cycle?

Answer 7

• atmosphere
• biosphere
• lithosphere
• hydrosphere/ oceanosphere

Question 8

give one example of flux of carbon occurring?

Answer 8

2010 eyjafjallajokull volcano in iceland erupted - emmitting between 150,000 to 300,000 tonnes of CO2 into the atmos.

Question 9

what is the difference between the slow and fast carbon cycle ?

Answer 9

slow - takes millions of years ad involves the lithosphere store and the flow into the atmosphere store
- built up C - laying down of sedimentary rocks and ocean sediments
- mostly released by volcanic activity, weathering of sed. rocks and transportation by rivers
Fast carbon cycle - the movement of carbon through food chains and takes place within a lifetime

Question 10

Gt of C in the lithosphere or geosphere ?

Answer 10

• estimated 99.9% of C stored- 60- 100 Man Gt

Question 11

Gt of C in hydrosphere/oceanosphere ?

Answer 11

40,000 Gt

Question 12

Gt of C in soil ?

Answer 12

up to 2,000 Gt

Question 13

Gt of C in Biosphere ?

Answer 13

up to 700 Gt

Question 14

Biological carbon pump?

Answer 14

the process taht transfers carbon via exchanges of CO2 between living organisms (within the biosphere and outside of it)