Science Trivia

Atmosphere
• Earth Has Had Three Atmospheres

• The second atmosphere formed during the Hadean Aeon around 4

billion years ago.
• Today’s atmosphere consists of 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen and traces of various other elements and
compounds, including varying amounts of water vapour. During the Hadean Aeon however, when our
planet was young, the air was a product of the solar nebula that gave birth to the planets over 4.5 billion
years ago. This fiery primordial world was ravaged by impact events and volcanism. Eventually, a
combination of volcanic outgassing and impact events replaced the predominantly hydrogen-based
atmosphere with nitrogen and carbon dioxide. By about 2.4 billion years ago, the third and current
atmosphere started to form.
Oxygen Caused the First Major Extinction
“Cyanobacteria, commonly known as green algae, was responsible for the first major
extinction event.”

• Until around 2.4 billion years ago, there wasn’t any oxygen in the atmosphere.
Nonetheless, microscopic life was well-established, including photosynthesising
cyanobacteria. Creating oxygen through photosynthesis, these organisms, which are
responsible for creating green algae, transformed the planet’s atmosphere. Until the
Great Oxygenation Event, oxygen had been trapped by water as it created rust from
iron deposits, preventing it from being freed into the atmosphere. At the time, most
life was anaerobic, for which oxygen can be toxic. Thus, while this event made the
world habitable for us today, it also saw the Earth’s first mass extinction.
 Global Warming Was Once Much Greater
“During the Cambrian Period, CO2 levels were 16 times higher than pre-industrial ones.”

• While mankind has presided over a 60% increase in CO2 levels since the dawn of
the Industrial Revolution, the greenhouse effect has, throughout most of Earth’s
history, been much stronger than it is today. During the Cambrian Period, which
saw one of the biggest evolutionary radiations of all time, CO2 levels were 11 times
higher than today. Consequently, the world was 7°C warmer, there was no ice at the
poles and sea levels were much higher. Hundreds of millions of years later, during
the time of the last dinosaurs, they were still almost 5 times higher than today.
Eventually, however, the world cooled, hailing in the ongoing Quaternary ice age.
Thank You!