August 28th, 2014

Lecture #2
Origin & evolution of the earth's atmosphere;
oxygen and ozone; photosynthesis, stromatolites
and banded iron formation; trace gases and
pollutants
Sergio Mendoza y La Orkesta (18:11)
Close to an inch of rain fell on campus during Tuesday afternoon's storm. The
Arizona Daily Star has some pretty good photographs of flooded streets.

The earth's original atmosphere and the origin(s) of our present atmosphere

what important atmospheric constituent(s) is(are) missing?

The Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland photographed on Apr. 17, 2010 (image

source)

Here are some additional pictures of the Eyjafjallajkull volcano. It caused severe
disruption of airline travel between the US and Europe. Here's another set of photos
also from the Boston Globe.

Water has filled the Askja

volcano caldera forming
Oskjuvatn Lake. The lake
covers 12 sq. kilometers and is
220 m deep. The small lake in
the foreground is Viti lake.

Closeup of Viti geothermal lake.

Source of both images

There is currently concern that magma from the Bardarbunga volcano (which lies
underneath a glacier) might move into the nearby Askja volcano and cause it to
erupt (see this Aug. 27 reference for more information)
Sources of atmospheric oxygen and ozone.

The two pictures above are from Lake Thetis (left) and Shark Bay (right) in
Western Australia (the two photos above and the photograph below come from this
source). The picture was probably taken at low tide, the stromatolites would
normally be covered with ocean water. It doesn't look like a good place to go
swimming, I would expect the top surfaces of these stromatolites to be slimy.

Living stromatolites at Highborne Cay in the Bahamas.

Photographs of the banded iron samples passed around in class.

Red State Park near Sedona Arizona.

An example of "red beds" that formed during the Permian period 250-300 million
years ago.

Not all gases are invisible.

Bromine in

Chlorine
(Cl2)

both liquid and

gaseous phases.
Bromine and
mercury are the
only two elements
that exist as
liquids at room
temperature. The
I found this image
bromine is in a
here
sealed glass
ampoule inside an

Iodine

Nitrogen dioxide
(NO2)

Also an element that

is normally found in An important air
solid form. The
pollutant.
solid sublimates, i.e.
it changes directly
from solid to gas
(you would probably
need to heat the
solid iodine to
produce gas as dense source of this image
as seen in the picture

acrylic cube.
Bromine could be
safely brought to
class in a
container like this.
This photo was
taken by Alchemisthp and was Picture
of the Day on the
English Wikipedia
on Oct. 29, 2010.

above). source of this

image