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A group of hikers encountering quicksand on the banks of the Paria River, Utah Quicksand warning sign near Lower King Bridge, Western Australia. Quicksand is a shear thinning non-Newtonian fluid: when undisturbed, it often appears to be solid ("gel" form), but a less than 1% change in the stress on the quicksand will cause a sudden decrease in its viscosity ("sol" form).
The marine carbon cycle is a central to the global carbon cycle and contains both inorganic carbon (carbon not associated with a living thing, such as carbon dioxide) and organic carbon (carbon that is, or has been, incorporated into a living thing). Part of the marine carbon cycle transforms carbon between non-living and living matter.
Quicksand forms when water saturates an area of loose sand, and the sand is agitated. When the water trapped in the batch of sand cannot escape, it creates liquefied soil that can no longer resist force. Quicksand can be formed by standing or (upwards) flowing underground water (as from an underground spring), or by earthquakes.
A biogeochemical cycle, or more generally a cycle of matter, [1] is the movement and transformation of chemical elements and compounds between living organisms, the atmosphere, and the Earth's crust. Major biogeochemical cycles include the carbon cycle, the nitrogen cycle and the water cycle. In each cycle, the chemical element or molecule is ...
Other major biogeochemical cycles include the nitrogen cycle and the water cycle. Carbon is the main component of biological compounds as well as a major component of many rocks such as limestone. The carbon cycle comprises a sequence of events that are key to making Earth capable of sustaining life.
Carbon can form a huge variety stable compounds. It is an essential component of living matter. Living organisms can live in a limited range of conditions on the Earth that are limited by temperature and the existence of liquid water. The potential habitability of other planets or moons can also be assessed by the existence of liquid water. [1]
It is also intimately linked to the cycling of other elements and compounds. The ocean plays a fundamental role in Earth's carbon cycle, helping to regulate atmospheric CO 2 concentration. The biological pump is a set of processes that transfer organic carbon from the surface to the deep ocean, and is at the heart of the ocean carbon cycle. [4]
The majority of known chemical cycles on Venus involve its dense atmosphere and compounds of carbon and sulphur, the most significant being a strong carbon dioxide cycle. [3] The lack of a complete carbon cycle including a geochemical carbon cycle, for example, is thought to be a cause of its runaway greenhouse effect, due to the lack of a ...