Air

[somebody]

Do gases in our environnement stay at equilibrium or at a certain concentration or they change? if yes, are there any notable data supporting that?

 

i have tried googling it but cant find anything

[Jay-qu]

Of course there will be slight variations in concentrations, and while slight, they can still make some profound differences. Go into a city and there is less trees plus more vehicles = higher CO2 less O2, around volcanoes there is more sulfur compounds and CO2.

The release of small amounts of CFC's (relative to the atmosphere) led to the destruction of the ozone layer, which if we hadnt of noticed could have caused major damage for anything that couldnt get out of the sun.

But generally speaking, the levels dont vary to much.

[LJP07]

Of course there will be slight variations in concentrations, and while slight, they can still make some profound differences. Go into a city and there is less trees plus more vehicles = higher CO2 less O2, around volcanoes there is more sulfur compounds and CO2.

The release of small amounts of CFC's (relative to the atmosphere) led to the destruction of the ozone layer, which if we hadnt of noticed could have caused major damage for anything that couldnt get out of the sun.

But generally speaking, the levels dont vary to much.

 

And day and night have slightly different concentrations, at night the plants don't recieve light, therefore there is more CO2 in the atmosphere, the same in light although there will be more O2 in the air.

 

Jay-Qu, recently on science news, it has been discovered that the ozone layer has started to recover back to it's former state, but it will take around 60 years for this process to be complete, this is the large hole over the antarctic.

www.csmonitor.com/2003/0801/p01s02-ussc.html

http://www.livescience.com/environment/ap_051207_ozone_hole.html

[Jay-qu]

yeah we had a part of a lecture on it a few weeks back, apparently we only noticed by chance that CFC's where killing the atmosphere! things would have played out very differently if we didnt accidently discover it. Thought I cant remember the exact terms on which this accident happened..

[InfiniteNow]

Do gases in our environnement stay at equilibrium or at a certain concentration or they change?

It's more that there is a tendency toward equilibrium, as everything is always changing in an uncontstrained system.

 

Put some gases in a sealed jar, they will reach an equilibrium.

 

Put some gases in an every changing atmosphere, they'll tend toward equilibrium but won't ever reach it.

[LJP07]

Put some gases in an every changing atmosphere, they'll tend toward equilibrium but won't ever reach it.

 

What forces would stop the composition reaching equilibrium, would it just be wind and precipitation?

[Jay-qu]

its not a closed system, energy from the sun, constantly changing composition, oceanic dissolving, us burning fossil fuels

[LJP07]

its not a closed system, energy from the sun, constantly changing composition, oceanic dissolving, us burning fossil fuels

 

It's obvious now that I think of it?:shrug:

 

:)