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Nitrogen
- Of the dry composition of the atmosphere, nitrogen by far is the most common. Nitrogen dilutes oxygen and prevents rapid burning at the Earth's surface.
www.noaa.gov/jetstream/atmosphereThe Atmosphere | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
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- Nitrogen (78.1%) While nitrogen is the most abundant gas in Earth’s atmosphere, it only makes up 0.005% of Earth’s crust in weight (David Darling). Nitrogen is incredibly stable and requires a lot of energy to change forms.
- Oxygen (20.9%) Earth has the conditions for life to flourish. Oxygen is essential to human life as our lungs respire oxygen and uses it in metabolism.
- Argon (0.93%) As an inert gas, argon doesn’t bond or do much in the atmosphere. This is why there’s no argon cycle. But we have nitrogen and carbon because of their ability to bond with other elements.
- Carbon Dioxide (0.04%) Carbon is the most important element for building molecules essential for living things. As you can see from the long-term carbon cycle, carbon takes up various forms such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and glucose (C6H12O6).
- Carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide(CO2) makes up only 0.036% of the atmosphere by volume. Carbon dioxide is essential to photosynthetic processes of plants. Huge quantities of carbon are stored in plant tissue, deposits of coal, peat, oil, and gas.
- Methane. Methane (CH4) is a greenhouse gas contributing to about 18% of global warming and has been on the rise over the last several decades. Though methane makes up far less of the atmosphere (.0002%) than carbon dioxide, it is 20 times more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas.
- Ozone. Ozone (O3) is both beneficial and harmful to life on Earth. Much of the ozone in the atmosphere is found in the stratosphere. Here, ozone absorbs UV light from the Sun preventing it from reaching the surface.
- Water Vapor. Water vapor is an extremely important gas found in the atmosphere. It can vary from 4% in the steamy tropics to nearly nonexistent in the cold dry regions of the Antarctic.
The atmosphere is mostly nitrogen (approximately 80%) and oxygen (approximately 20%). The remaining gases are found in much smaller proportions, such as carbon dioxide and water vapour.
The first atmosphere, during the Early Earth's Hadean eon, consisted of gases in the solar nebula, primarily hydrogen, and probably simple hydrides such as those now found in the gas giants (Jupiter and Saturn), notably water vapor, methane and ammonia.
Helium is a decay product of radioactive elements in the earth, but neon and the other inert gases are primordial, and have probably been present in their present relative abundances since the earth’s formation.
Jun 25, 2024 · We live at the bottom of an invisible ocean called the atmosphere, a layer of gases surrounding our planet. Nitrogen and oxygen account for 99 percent of the gases in dry air, with argon, carbon dioxide, helium, neon, and other gases making up minute portions.
Jul 2, 2024 · The atmosphere surrounds the Earth and holds the air we breathe; it protects us from outer space; and holds moisture (clouds), gases, and tiny particles. In short, the atmosphere is the protective bubble in which we live. This protective bubble consists of several gases (listed in the table below), with the top four making up 99.998% of all gases.
