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These heat exchanges influence the climate system. The evaporative phase of the cycle purifies water because it causes salts and other solids picked up during the cycle to be left behind. The condensation phase in the atmosphere replenishes the land with freshwater. The flow of liquid water and ice transports minerals across the globe.
The oxygen cycle involves biogeochemical transitions of oxygen atoms between different oxidation states in ions, oxides, and molecules through redox reactions within and between the spheres/reservoirs of the planet Earth. [36] The word oxygen in the literature typically refers to molecular oxygen (O 2) since it is the common product or reactant ...
Sulfur is critical to the three-dimensional shape of proteins. The cycling of these elements is interconnected. For example, the movement of water is critical for leaching sulfur and phosphorus into rivers which can then flow into oceans. Minerals cycle through the biosphere between the biotic and abiotic components and from one organism to ...
A sudden reduction in pressure causes a rapid phase transition from liquid to steam, resulting in an explosion of water and rock debris. [2] During the last Ice Age, many hydrothermal explosions were triggered by the release of pressure as glaciers receded. [3] Other causes are seismic activity, erosion, or hydraulic fracturing. [4]
Through this effect, a runaway feedback process may have removed much carbon dioxide and water vapor from the atmosphere and cooled the planet. Water condenses on the surface, leading to carbon dioxide dissolving and chemically binding to minerals. This reduced the greenhouse effect, lowering the temperature and causing more water to condense.
Hydrothermal circulation in the oceans is the passage of the water through mid-oceanic ridge systems.. The term includes both the circulation of the well-known, high-temperature vent waters near the ridge crests, and the much-lower-temperature, diffuse flow of water through sediments and buried basalts further from the ridge crests. [3]
The underlying cause of the intensifying water cycle is the increased amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which lead to a warmer atmosphere through the greenhouse effect. [3] Fundamental laws of physics explain how the saturation vapor pressure in the atmosphere increases by 7% when temperature rises by 1 °C. [4]
Earth's internal heat budget is fundamental to the thermal history of the Earth. The flow of heat from Earth's interior to the surface is estimated at 47±2 terawatts (TW) [1] and comes from two main sources in roughly equal amounts: the radiogenic heat produced by the radioactive decay of isotopes in the mantle and crust, and the primordial ...