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Argon is the most abundant noble gas in Earth's crust, comprising 0.00015% of the crust. Nearly all argon in Earth's atmosphere is radiogenic argon-40, derived from the decay of potassium-40 in Earth's crust. In the universe, argon-36 is by far the most common argon isotope, as it is the most easily produced by stellar nucleosynthesis in ...
Total atmospheric mass is 5.1480 × 10 18 kg (1.13494 × 10 19 lb), [36] about 2.5% less than would be inferred from the average sea-level pressure and Earth's area of 51007.2 megahectares, this portion being displaced by Earth's mountainous terrain. Atmospheric pressure is the total weight of the air above unit area at the point where the ...
Atmospheric chemistry is a branch of atmospheric science that studies the chemistry of the Earth's atmosphere and that of other planets. This multidisciplinary approach of research draws on environmental chemistry, physics, meteorology, computer modeling, oceanography, geology and volcanology, climatology and other disciplines to understand both natural and human-induced changes in atmospheric ...
Dry air (mixture of gases) from Earth's atmosphere contains 78.08% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0.04% carbon dioxide, and traces of hydrogen, helium, and other "noble" gases (by volume), but generally a variable amount of water vapor is also present, on average about 1% at sea level.
The abundance of argon, on the other hand, is increased as a result of the beta decay of potassium-40, also found in the Earth's crust, to form argon-40, which is the most abundant isotope of argon on Earth despite being relatively rare in the Solar System. This process is the basis for the potassium-argon dating method. [72]
At the 60th parallel, the air rises to the tropopause (about 8 km at this latitude) and moves poleward. As it does so, the upper-level air mass deviates toward the east. When the air reaches the polar areas, it has cooled by radiation to space and is considerably denser than the underlying air. It descends, creating a cold, dry high-pressure area.
Climate 101 is a Mashable series that answers provoking and salient questions about Earth’s warming climate. The last time CO2 levels were as high as today, ocean waters drowned the lands where ...
Atmospheric thermodynamics is the study of heat-to-work transformations (and their reverse) that take place in the Earth's atmosphere and manifest as weather or climate. . Atmospheric thermodynamics use the laws of classical thermodynamics, to describe and explain such phenomena as the properties of moist air, the formation of clouds, atmospheric convection, boundary layer meteorology, and ...