1-Why is Venus so much warmer than Earth today?

2-What is the faint young Sun pose a paradox?

3-What has always acted a long-term thermostat regulating Earth’s climate?

4-What six reservoirs of carbon in order from largest to smallest?

5-Which of the following elements is not one of the top 8 in Earth’s crust:

aluminum, calcium, carbon, iron, magnesium, oxygen, potassium, silicon, sodium

Essay question. What climate systems are thought to be near a tipping point and what does that mean?

Essay question. How do the Uplift and Weathering hypothesis and the BLAG hypothesis account for Earth’s climate over the past 325 Ma?

Extra credit: The Orca carbon capture machine in Iceland can remove and store 4000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. One ton of carbon dioxide contains approximately 0.2725 tons of carbon. If annual emissions of carbon (not carbon dioxide) from burning fossil fuels are about 11 million metric tons, how many Orca machines would be needed to reach n

 

1. Why Venus is warmer

Venus is warmer because it is surrounded by a thick atmosphere, approximated to be 100 times thicker than Earth (Nakayama & Pelletier, 2018). Sunlight passing through the atmosphere heats the Venus surface, and most of the heat is blocked by the thick atmosphere and can't escape back into space. The trapped heat cerates an extremely high temperature referred to as the greenhouse effect.

2. Faint young Sun pose a paradox

The outgoing energy of the sun has increased as the year progresses while the temperature of the Earth has remained relatively constant. The sun's luminosity over the Earth has been lower during the early history of the Earth compared to the Phanerozoic age (Way & Genio, 2020). Despite having lower shortwave radiation reaching the Earth, the freezing of the Earth was not witnessed. The climate model provides the paradox which indicates Earth could have been frozen in the first billion of the history of the Earth. As we continually increase solar luminosity through time, the greenhouse concentration gases are higher than today. Greenhouse gases decrease with increasing solar radiation (Liu, 2020).

3. Long-term thermostat

With the increase in Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, there will be an increase in weathering process, and temperature and carbon dioxide are moderated. It provides a long-term thermostat that protects Earth from getting too cold or too warm (Duffy & Schipper, 2021). Based on certain hypotheses, greenhouse gases act as the Earth's thermostat. However, in the current period, the concentration of greenhouses gases is lower and could not counteract a weak sun. Assuming higher concentration, it would have occurred. The carbon on Earth is stored on rocks, while Venus store in the atmosphere. With carbon found at different reservoir periods, the temperature of the Earth could have been regulated by CO2

4. Six reservoirs of carbon

Carbon is stored in planet earth as first in the ocean as dissolved atmospheric CO2, second in the lithosphere as deposits of sedimentary rock such as chalk/dolomite/limestone or as fossil fuels, third in organic molecules in dead and living organisms located in the biosphere, fourth as carbon dioxide gas in the atmosphere, fifth in the soil as organic matter, and sixth is found in the shell of marine organisms as calcium carbonate.

5. Not element of Earth's crust

Carbon

6. Climate systems near a tipping point

Tipping point refers to the threshold in which tiny changes may cause a system to be pushed to a completely new state. Examples include the West Antarctic ice sheet (WAIS), one of the Antarctica regions. The WAIS has enough ice to increase global sea levels by about 3.3 meters (Duffy & Schipper, 2021). Hence, a partial ice loss is significant to alter the coastline across the globe dramatically. The stability of the WAIS in the long term is of concern because it is an ice sheet of a marine. Its base is a bedrock that is found below sea level and in contact with the ocean's heat, making it vulnerable to the irreversible and rapid loss of ice. Because of gravity force, the WAIS gradually from the interior to the coast and further to the Southern Ocean, with lost ice being replenished by fresh snowfall from the ice sheet's interior. The global sea level will increase if ice loss from the ice sheet to the ocean is higher than from snow. Research indicates the rate of ice loss has tripled from 53bn per annum in 1997 to 159bn per annum in 2017. Bypassing a tipping point will cause irreversible loss due to an increase in seal levels. It could trigger irreversible loss of ice land to the ocean through collapse or thinning of WAIS ice shelves, hence instability of marine ice sheet.

7. Uplift and Weathering hypothesis versus BLAG hypothesis

Uplift and weathering of the surface features is the determining factor in levels of CO2 in the atmosphere and hence causing global warming (Ruddiman & Prell, 2013). After uplifting the land, geological forces cause wear and erodes the land through weathering. Uplift of land may occur through the fracture, plate tectonics, high plateaus converging plates. An uplifted land experiences a geomorphic process with various erosional processes from landscapes to rock weathering, sediments transportation, erode formations, and earth surface wear to flat plain.

The uplift and Weathering hypothesis is critical since faster weathering consumes a larger amount of CO2 from the atmosphere and helps cool the global climate, causing a condition for global cooling (Liu, 2020). The scientist has successfully applied the concept to uplift the Earth's surface through continental collision because of plate tectonics. In summary, the uplift and weathering hypothesis views weathering as an active driver of climate change instead of negative feedback that causes a moderation of climate change.

BLAG hypothesis postulates that an increased spreading rate leads to increased CO2 levels released by magma into the atmosphere (Liu, 2020). The CO2 is emitted into the atmosphere from two sources, such as margins of divergent plates with CO2 in the magma, and is absorbed into the ocean water. The second is convergent plates meeting at margins where melting of part of subducting plates occurs and rises to the upper surface where other gases, including CO2, are released (Duffy & Schipper, 2021). In simpler terms, the atmospheric CO2 is emitted from volcanos in a period of rapid spreading at the ocean floor, which has many active volcanos and, therefore, warmer climate due to high levels of atmospheric CO2. However, fewer volcanos exist with slow ocean floor spreading and, therefore, colder climates or lower atmospheric CO2. The dating of rocks is carried out by measuring the distance of rock bands away from central spreading.

8.How many Orca machines would be needed to reach

Carbon capture machine = 4000t of CO2 pr annum

One tone of CO2= 0.2725t of carbon

Annual carbon emission = 11Mt

Tones of CO2 = 11/0.2725 = 40.3369M tones of CO2

Number of Orca carbon capture = 40336900/4000 = 10091.7 Orca machines

Hence = 10092 Orca machines

Outline

Questions for Geology

1.Why Venus is warmer

2. Faint young Sun pose a paradox

3.Long-term thermostat

4.Six reservoirs of carbon

5. Not element of earth’s crust

6. Climate systems near a tipping point

7. Uplift and Weathering hypothesis versus BLAG hypothesis

8.How many Orca machines would be needed to reach