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Is oxygen the most abundant gas in Earth's atmosphere?
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What gases are in Earth's atmosphere?
What are the 9 most abundant elements in the Earth's crust?
Which two gases make up most of the atmosphere by volume?
Which elements are found at the outer margins of the atmosphere?
The Earth’s atmosphere is made up of many different gases. At the lower levels, nitrogen and oxygen are the most abundant gases. One of the most important things to remember about Earth’s atmosphere is that it is dynamic, meaning what we see today may not be the same as what we see years from now.
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- Atmosphere Layer
- Carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide(CO2) makes up only 0.036% of the atmosphere by volume. Carbon dioxide is essential to photosynthetic processes of plants. Huge quantities of carbon are stored in plant tissue, deposits of coal, peat, oil, and gas.
- Methane. Methane (CH4) is a greenhouse gas contributing to about 18% of global warming and has been on the rise over the last several decades. Though methane makes up far less of the atmosphere (.0002%) than carbon dioxide, it is 20 times more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas.
- Ozone. Ozone (O3) is both beneficial and harmful to life on Earth. Much of the ozone in the atmosphere is found in the stratosphere. Here, ozone absorbs UV light from the Sun preventing it from reaching the surface.
- Water Vapor. Water vapor is an extremely important gas found in the atmosphere. It can vary from 4% in the steamy tropics to nearly nonexistent in the cold dry regions of the Antarctic.
Key points. The atmosphere is a mixture of gases. The atmosphere is mostly nitrogen (approximately 80%) and oxygen (approximately 20%). The remaining gases are found in much smaller...
- Table of Elements and Compounds in Air
- Water Vapor in The Atmosphere
- Air Pollution
- The Ozone Layer
- Homosphere and Heterosphere
- Sources
Below is the composition of air in percent by volume, at sea level at 15 C and 101325 Pa. 1. Nitrogen -- N2-- 78.084% 2. Oxygen -- O2-- 20.9476% 3. Argon-- Ar -- 0.934% 4. Carbon Dioxide -- CO2-- 0.04% 5. Neon-- Ne -- 0.001818% 6. Methane -- CH4-- 0.0002% 7. Helium-- He -- 0.000524% 8. Krypton-- Kr -- 0.000114% 9. Hydrogen -- H2-- 0.00005% 10. Xeno...
Although this CRC table does not list water vapor (H2O), air can contain as much as 5% water vapor, more commonly ranging from 1-3%. The 1-5% range places water vapor as the third most common gas (which alters the other percentages accordingly). Water content varies according to air temperature. Dry air is denser than humid air. However, sometimes ...
Air pollution varies according to geographical location and also where it occurs in the air column. Pollutants include chemicals, particulates like dust and ash, and biological matter, like pollen and bacteria.
Ozone (O3) is unevenly distributed throughout Earth's atmosphere. The ozone layer is a portion of the stratosphere from 15 to 35 kilometers (9.3 to 21.7 miles). However, its thickness varies geographically and seasonally. The ozone layer contains about 90% of the atmospheric ozone, with a concentration of 2 to 8 parts per million. Even though this ...
The homosphere is the portion of the atmosphere with a fairly uniform composition due to atmospheric turbulence. In contrast, the heterosphere is the part of the atmosphere where chemical composition varies mainly according to altitude. Earth's homosphere includes the lower layers of the atmosphere: the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, and lo...
Barry, R.G.; Chorley, R.J. (1971). Atmosphere, Weather and Climate. London: Menthuen & Co Ltd. ISBN 9780416079401.Lide, David R. (1997). CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics. Boca Raton, FL: CRC. 14-17.Lutgens, Frederick K.; Tarbuck, Edward J. (1995). The Atmosphere(6th ed.). Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-350612-6.Martin, Daniel; McKenna, Helen; Livina, Valerie (2016). "The human physiological impact of global deoxygenation". The Journal of Physiological Sciences. 67 (1): 97–106. doi:10.1007/s12576-016-0501-0- Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D.
The mass-abundance of the nine most abundant elements in the Earth's crust is roughly: oxygen 46%, silicon 28%, aluminium 8.3%, iron 5.6%, calcium 4.2%, sodium 2.5%, magnesium 2.4%, potassium 2.0%, and titanium 0.61%.
Jun 25, 2024 · The atmosphere’s most abundant greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide, water vapor, and methane. Fast-moving, high-altitude winds called jet streams swirl around the planet near the upper boundary of the troposphere.
Review your understanding of the composition and layers of Earth's atmosphere in this free article aligned to AP standards.
