For the last 800,000 years , the amount of atomic number 8 in the atmosphere has declined by about 0.7 percent . It ’s not enough to cause hurt to lifeforms , but enough to stick scientists .
In a novel study , published inScience , researchers from Princeton University look at air bubble trap in ancient shabu in Greenland and Antarctica . The team guess the past atmospheric pressure of atomic number 8 by measure the ratio of O to nitrogen in these prehistoric bubbles .
Oxygen is clearly key to life on Earth as we know it , but it also plays a role in many chemical substance processes around the ball . A variety of 0.7 is nothing too dramatic , though ; it ’s an equivalent drop of going from zero to about 100 meters ( 328 human foot ) above sea grade .
But the puzzling question is where did it go ? The researchers have two hypotheses that could explain the decline .
" The first is that spheric eroding rates may have increase over the past few to tens of millions of age due to , among other things , the ontogeny of glacier – glaciers grind rock , thereby increasing erosion rates , " lead author Daniel Stolper toldLive Science .
" instead , when the ocean cools , as it has done over the past 15 million years , before fossil fuel burning , the solubility of oxygen in the ocean increases . That is , the ocean can store more oxygen at cold temperatures for a given concentration of oxygen in the standard pressure , " he contribute .
There are many materials that are also good at removing oxygen from the atmosphere . Rust itself is formed by iron bonding with atomic number 8 . Some materials like pyrite ( also have a go at it as fools ’ amber ) and organic carbon are particularly efficient in capturing oxygen , and these substance could be the culprits behind the fall .
There ’s also another interesting determination in the research . asunder from the last 150 years , the story of carbon dioxide has been more or less unceasing . This was unexpected , as carbon paper dioxide levels tend to increase as oxygen decrement .
A possible solution is the so - telephone " silicate weather thermostat " , a yet - to - be tested concept suggesting an increase erosion in volcanic rock-and-roll when the atmosphere becomes richer in atomic number 6 dioxide . Those discover down John Rock are launder in the sea and carbon dioxide is trapped there .
More research is necessary , though , to work out how O and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere interact with our major planet over long stop of sentence .
[ H / T : Live skill ]
