Losing air:New study finds a barrage of small impacts likely erased much of the Earth’s primordial atmosphere. | #Geology #GeologyPage Todays atmosphere likely bears little trace of its primordial self: Geochemical evidence suggests that Earths atmosphere may have been completely obliterated at least twice since its formation more than 4 billion years ago. However, its unclear what interplanetary forces could have driven such a dramatic loss. Now researchers at MIT, Hebrew University, and Caltech have landed on a likely scenario: A relentless blitz of small space rocks, or planetesimals, may have bombarded Earth around the time the moon was formed, kicking up clouds of gas with enough force to permanently eject small portions of the atmosphere into space. Read more : geologypage/2014/12/losing-airnew-study-finds-barrage-of.html Geology Page geologypage
Posted on: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 13:14:25 +0000
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