How does Earth keep its atmosphere?

Earth’s atmosphere is only 1/1,200,000 the mass of Earth itself. So it is a very thin skin surrounding our planet. How does Earth hold on to this

thin skin of atmosphere?

The answer is gravity – the same force that keeps us anchored to Earth.

And yet, although you might not realize it or think about it, Earth does continually lose some of its atmosphere to space. This loss occurs in the

upper atmosphere, over billion-year time scales.

Molecules in our atmosphere are constantly moving, spurred on by energizing sunlight. Some move quickly enough to escape the grip of Earth’s gravity. The
escape velocity for planet Earth is a little over 11 kilometers per second – about 25 thousand miles an hour. If Earth were much less massive – say, as massive as
Mars – gravity’s grip would be weaker. That’s one reason why Mars lost most of its original atmosphere.

In the vicinity of our heavier Earth, where gravity is stronger than on Mars, not all particles are equally likely to escape. Light ones, like

hydrogen and helium, typically move faster than heavier ones, like oxygen and nitrogen. The light atoms are more likely to reach escape velocity

and escape to space. That’s why light molecules are rare in our atmosphere, in contrast to their abundance in the universe at large.

Still, all in all, Earth’s atmosphere is here to stay. And that’s a good thing because our atmosphere protects life on Earth in many ways. It absorbs

harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun, helps keep Earth’s surface warm via the greenhouse effect, and reduces temperature extremes

between day and night. Yay atmosphere! It keeps Earth livable.

So, thanks to gravity, although some of Earth’s atmosphere is escaping to space, most is staying here.

https://earthsky.org/earth/what-keeps-earths-atmosphere-on-earth/

Early Earth had a hazy, methane-filled atmosphere

More than 2.4 billion years ago, Earth's atmosphere was inhospitable, filled with toxic gases that drove wildly
fluctuating surface temperatures. Understanding how today's world of mild climates and breathable air took shape is a
fundamental question in Earth science.

New research from the University of Maryland, the University of St. Andrews, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the
University of Leeds and the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science suggests that long ago, Earth's atmosphere spent
about a million years filled with a methane-rich haze. This haze drove a large amount of hydrogen out of the
atmosphere, clearing the way for massive amounts of oxygen to fill the air. This transformation resulted in an
atmosphere much like the one that sustains life on Earth today.

"High methane levels meant that more hydrogen, the main gas preventing the build up of oxygen, could escape into
outer space, paving the way for global oxygenation," said Aubrey Zerkle, a biogeochemist at the University of St.
Andrews and a co-author of the study. "Our new dataset constitutes the highest resolution record of Archean
atmospheric chemistry ever produced, and paints a dramatic picture of Earth surface conditions before the
oxygenation of our planet."
Source: https://phys.org/news/2017-03-early-earth-hazy-methane-filled-atmosphere.html

The History of Oxygen in Earth’s Atmosphere

History of Oxygen in Earth’s Atmosphere

Oxygen isn’t the most abundant gas in Earth’s atmosphere composition. Based on the relative volumes of the gases in Earth’s
atmosphere, nitrogen is 3 times greater than oxygen.

Because the troposphere is the lowest atmosphere layer, it contains 75 percent of the atmosphere’s mass.

From largest to smallest, Earth’s atmosphere composition contains nitrogen, oxygen, argon, CO 2, and trace gases.

But it never used to be like this in the past. Over time, Earth’s oxygen levels have changed significantly with varying levels of
hydrogen, helium, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and oxygen.
1. Hydrogen and helium were in the Hadean Eon
Earth’s early atmosphere was enriched with hydrogen and helium gases. But over time, Earth lost these gases because it wasn’t
large enough to hold onto them.

Atmospheric composition is related to escape velocity. The escape velocity of Earth is the speed at which a free object must travel
to escape into space from a planet’s gravitational pull.

To this day, Earth loses about 3 kg of hydrogen every second. But Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune hold on tight to these
gases because they are much bigger in size. In fact, their atmospheres are mostly these gases.

“Hydrogen and helium gases filled Earth’s early atmosphere. But over time,
these gases escaped because Earth wasn’t large enough to hold onto them.”

2. Carbon dioxide in the Archean Eon

Earth continued to cool and rocks began to solidify in the Archean Eon. Plate tectonics and volcanic activity characterized this
early period in Earth’s history.
After hydrogen and helium atoms escaped the atmosphere in the Hadean Eon, the atmosphere mostly consisted of the following
gases:

 Methane
 Ammonia
 Water vapor
 Nitrogen

CO2 played a dominant role early in Earth’s history. Earth was uninhabitable for life at this time because the atmosphere was
without oxygen.

The only life forms that could exist were anaerobic cyanobacteria (blue-green algae). It turns out that these microorganisms laid
the foundation for enriching the atmosphere with oxygen.

3. The Great Oxygenation Event filled the air with oxygen

The Great Oxygenation Event marks a time in our geologic history when free oxygen filled the atmosphere. The key to their
existence was that they lived without oxygen.

Over time, these cyanobacteria released oxygen as waste. They generated so much oxygen, that it kept building up in the oceans.
Eventually, oxygen entered the atmosphere and started an oxygen crisis of its own.

And after oxygen filled the air, it created a habitable planet. Since the early formation of Earth, oxygen levels have changed
significantly. For example, free oxygen levels peaked just before the era of dinosaurs.
4. What is Earth’s current atmosphere composition?

Oxygen plays a pivotal role in aerobic life such as in humans. But oxygen isn’t the most abundant gas in Earth’s atmosphere
composition. Based on the relative volumes of the gases in Earth’s atmosphere, nitrogen is actually more than 3 times more
abundant than oxygen.

We commonly refer to nitrogen (N2) as an inert gas. But it forms nitrogen sulfide with sulfur, nitrogen dioxide with oxygen,
ammonia with hydrogen such as in the nitrogen cycle.

While 78.1% of the atmosphere consists of nitrogen, 20.9% is oxygen. So the bulk of the atmosphere’s composition is these two
gases. And since the Paleozoic Era, their relative compositions have see-sawed back and forth ever so slightly.

The next most abundant gas is argon which is an inert gas. Argon doesn’t bond or do much in the atmosphere. This is why the
argon cycle doesn’t exist in nature.

History of Oxygen in Earth’s Atmosphere

Oxygen is a gas that is essential for sustaining life on Earth. Without it, there would be no life as we know it.

The history of oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere has been linked to many different events in the past and the level of oxygen was
never consistent.

Source: https://earthhow.com/atmosphere-history/

The Great Oxygenation Event

Over Earth’s geologic timeline, our atmosphere history has seen wild shifts.

The early Earth’s atmosphere had no free oxygen in it. But as we know today, we live and breathe free oxygen from the air.

The Great Oxygenation Event marks a time when free oxygen filled the atmosphere.

What sparked this event?

And how did it affect life on our planet?

Cyanobacteria release oxygen as a waste product

Long ago, oceanic cyanobacteria evolved to carry out photosynthesis to make energy for themselves.

The key to their existence at this time was that they didn’t need oxygen. They were completely anaerobic. In fact, oxygen was
poison for cyanobacteria.

Over time, these cyanobacteria released oxygen as a waste product. So much oxygen, that it kept building up in the oceans.

Eventually, oxygen entered the atmosphere. This marked the start of the Great Oxygenation Event.

Free oxygen had profound effects on the planet. It triggered an oxygen crisis, it froze over the whole planet and it rusted iron to
form banded iron formations.
Oxygen poisons cyanobacteria almost wiping them away
Without oxygen, anaerobic life flourished. But in an oxygen-rich environment, oxygen was poisonous for cyanobacteria.

The irony of cyanobacteria is that the oxygen they released was toxic to them.

As a whole, the number of anaerobic organisms dwindled to the brink of extinction. This wiped out over 90% of life on earth.

The reason why this event is called an “oxygen crisis” is that they threatened their own existence through their own waste of
oxygen.

Cyanobacteria didn’t completely vanish. By hiding in low-oxygen environments, cyanobacteria avoided a mass extinction.

Eventually, life evolved to use this oxygen and now the ecosystem keeps itself in balance this way.
The oxygen-filled atmosphere creates a “Snowball Earth”

Oxygen played a key role in transforming the planet into a “Snowball Earth” or “Slushball Earth”.

Remember that the atmosphere before the great oxygenation event was mostly methane and nitrogen.

Methane is one of the most efficient greenhouse gases that exist. Long ago, it trapped heat in the atmosphere keeping temperatures
warm.

So when oxygen combined with methane, it produced carbon dioxide. Because there was less methane in the atmosphere, the
greenhouse effect wasn’t as strong.

Without heat trapped in the atmosphere, Earth froze over for about 300,000,000 years. This event was the first major ice age that
Earth experienced known as the Pongola glaciation.
Banded iron formations demonstrate a struggle for constant oxygen

Banded iron formations (BIF) consist of alternating layers of red (oxidized) and (unoxidized) black iron. Because iron rusts when
it reacts with oxygen, these layers were red.

So the red (oxidized) layers mark a time when there was oxygen. The alternating layers give a sneak peek of how oxygenation
was just starting to get a foothold.

We can find banded iron formations all over the world such as in Australia, Canada, and South Africa. Most of the world’s iron
ore deposits were produced in the Archean Eon.
How come there wasn’t any free oxygen?
By nature, oxygen is a very volatile substance. This is because it steals electrons from other atoms.

 Oxygen atoms existed at this time but were bonded with hydrogen in water molecules.
 Instead of H2S, cyanobacteria used H20 as a source of electrons and hydrogen for fixing CO2.
 The CO2 fixation was the process that filled free oxygen in the skies.

Over time, life adapted to use oxygen for its own benefit. But that was not always the case for anaerobic organisms.

The oxygen crisis almost ended cyanobacteria

For millions of years, cyanobacteria used heat from volcanoes or mid-ocean ridges and then released oxygen into the oceans and
air. Eventually, they filled the oceans with oxygen.

The irony of cyanobacteria is that the oxygen they released was toxic to them. As a whole, the number of anaerobic organisms
dropped in the Proterozoic Eon.

The reason why this event is called an “oxygen crisis” is that they threatened their own existence through their own waste of
oxygen.

Cyanobacteria didn’t completely vanish in the Proterozoic Eon. By hiding in low-oxygen environments, cyanobacteria
avoided their own mass extinction.
The Great Oxygenation Event (GOE)
There wasn’t always a breath of fresh air on Earth. Methane and nitrogen choked any potential life in Earth’s early atmosphere.
But this doesn’t mean that life didn’t exist.

Long ago, tiny microscopic cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) flourished in ocean environments. They evolved to carry out
photosynthesis anaerobically.

Their evidence is from stromatolites which are layered, mound-shaped fossils found in rocks. Stromatolites were made by
cyanobacteria, trapping sediment on the sea floor. For example, we can observe stromatolites in Shark Bay, Australia, which has
been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The key to their existence was that they didn’t need oxygen to survive. As a byproduct, these anaerobic organisms released
oxygen which was toxic to them.

Eventually, oxygen filled the oceans. Then, it made it all the way to the atmosphere. This event is known as the great oxygenation
event. This paved the way for aerobic organisms to carry the torch.

Source: https://earthhow.com/great-oxygenation-event/
The Origin of Oxygen in Earth's Atmosphere
The breathable air we enjoy today originated from tiny organisms, although the details remain lost in geologic time

It's hard to keep oxygen molecules around, despite the fact that it's the third-most abundant element in the universe,
forged in the superhot, superdense core of stars. That's because oxygen wants to react; it can form compounds with
nearly every other element on the periodic table. So how did Earth end up with an atmosphere made up of roughly 21
percent of the stuff?

The answer is tiny organisms known as cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae. These microbes conduct photosynthesis:
using sunshine, water and carbon dioxide to produce carbohydrates and, yes, oxygen. In fact, all the plants on Earth
incorporate symbiotic cyanobacteria (known as chloroplasts) to do their photosynthesis for them down to this day.

For some untold eons prior to the evolution of these cyanobacteria, during the Archean eon, more primitive microbes
lived the real old-fashioned way: anaerobically. These ancient organisms—and their "extremophile" descendants
today—thrived in the absence of oxygen, relying on sulfate for their energy needs.

But roughly 2.45 billion years ago, the isotopic ratio of sulfur transformed, indicating that for the first time oxygen
was becoming a significant component of Earth's atmosphere, according to a 2000 paper in Science. At roughly the
same time (and for eons thereafter), oxidized iron began to appear in ancient soils and bands of iron were deposited on
the seafloor, a product of reactions with oxygen in the seawater.

"What it looks like is that oxygen was first produced somewhere around 2.7 billion to 2.8 billon years ago. It took up
residence in atmosphere around 2.45 billion years ago," says geochemist Dick Holland, a visiting scholar at the
University of Pennsylvania. "It looks as if there's a significant time interval between the appearance of oxygen-
producing organisms and the actual oxygenation of the atmosphere."

So a date and a culprit can be fixed for what scientists refer to as the Great Oxidation Event, but mysteries remain.
What occurred 2.45 billion years ago that enabled cyanobacteria to take over? What were oxygen levels at that time?
Why did it take another one billion years—dubbed the "boring billion" by scientists—for oxygen levels to rise high
enough to enable the evolution of animals?

Most important, how did the amount of atmospheric oxygen reach its present level? "It's not that easy why it should
balance at 21 percent rather than 10 or 40 percent," notes geoscientist James Kasting of Pennsylvania State University.
"We don't understand the modern oxygen control system that well."

Climate, volcanism, plate tectonics all played a key role in regulating the oxygen level during various time periods.
Yet no one has come up with a rock-solid test to determine the precise oxygen content of the atmosphere at any given
time from the geologic record. But one thing is clear—the origins of oxygen in Earth's atmosphere derive from one
thing: life.

Source: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/origin-of-oxygen-in-atmosphere/

The evolution of our atmosphere and those of other planets:

You need to understand how our atmosphere has changed over the 4.6 billion year life span of our planet and to know what drove those changes. Cooling caused
the water vapour to condense and fall, volcanoes released huge amounts of carbon dioxide. This means that the early atmosphere was very much like the current
atmospheres of Venus and Mars. Volcanoes also released large quantities of CO 2, some of which dissolved in the oceans and gave us carbonate sediments. The
next major change that set Earth apart from our planetary neighbours was life. Early life began to photosynthesise and most of the CO 2 that remained in our
atmosphere was broken down to sugars in the plant material and the waste product released was oxygen.
Although we have lots of evidence about this process, remember that nobody witnessed it and there are no rock deposits surviving from 4.6 billion years ago, this
makes it reliant on theories based on evidence and these can and do change over time.

Source: https://www.sciencedepartment.co.uk/gchem/atmosphere.htm
https://www.slideserve.com/sibley/the-earth-s-atmosphere-a-guide-for-gcse-students

Sources PDFs:

https://www.rcboe.org/cms/lib/GA01903614/Centricity/Domain/4945/Layers%20of%20the%20atmosphere%20power%20point%20PDF.pdf

https://www.spsd.k12.ms.us/cms/lib/MS01910585/Centricity/Domain/978/Layers%20of%20the%20Atmosphere.pdf

https://eli.lehigh.edu/sites/eli.lehigh.edu/files/Atmosphere_PrintVersion.pdf