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This is an index of lists of molecules (i.e. by year, number of atoms, etc.). Millions of molecules have existed in the universe since before the formation of Earth. Three of them, carbon dioxide , water and oxygen were necessary for the growth of life.
2 combines with atomic oxygen made by the splitting of O 2 by ultraviolet (UV) radiation. [22] Since ozone absorbs strongly in the UV region of the spectrum, the ozone layer of the upper atmosphere functions as a protective radiation shield for the planet. [22] Near the Earth's surface, it is a pollutant formed as a by-product of automobile ...
Oxygen is present as compounds in the atmosphere in trace quantities in the form of carbon dioxide (CO 2) and oxides of nitrogen (NO x). The Earth's crustal rock is composed in large part of oxides of silicon (silica SiO 2, found in granite and sand), aluminium (aluminium oxide Al 2 O 3, in bauxite and corundum), iron (iron (III) oxide Fe 2 O
About 99% of the Earth's atmosphere is composed of two species of diatomic molecules: nitrogen (78%) and oxygen (21%). The natural abundance of hydrogen (H 2) in the Earth's atmosphere is only of the order of parts per million, but H 2 is the most abundant diatomic molecule in the universe. The interstellar medium is dominated by hydrogen atoms.
The abundance of the chemical elements is a measure of the occurrences of the chemical elements relative to all other elements in a given environment. Abundance is measured in one of three ways: by mass fraction (in commercial contexts often called weight fraction), by mole fraction (fraction of atoms by numerical count, or sometimes fraction of molecules in gases), or by volume fraction.
There are several known allotropes of oxygen. The most familiar is molecular oxygen (O 2), present at significant levels in Earth's atmosphere and also known as dioxygen or triplet oxygen. Another is the highly reactive ozone (O 3). Others are: Atomic oxygen (O 1), a free radical. Singlet oxygen (O * 2), one of two metastable states of ...
Free oxygen did not exist in the atmosphere until about 2.4 billion years ago during the Great Oxygenation Event and its appearance is indicated by the end of banded iron formations (which signals the depletion of substrates that can react with oxygen to produce ferric deposits) during the early Proterozoic eon.
Oxygen makes up 21% of the atmosphere by weight, 89% of water by weight, 46% of the Earth's crust by weight, [6] and 65% of the human body. [54] Oxygen also occurs in many minerals, being found in all oxide minerals and hydroxide minerals , and in numerous other mineral groups. [ 55 ]