Geophysicists from the US and Australia found evidence of the inflation of the Earth’s atmosphere.
The idea that the young Earth had a denser atmosphere than our planet, was refuted by the American scientists from the University of Washington.
Analyzing the lava age of 2.7 billion years, the researchers came to the conclusion that the planet’s atmosphere pressing on the surface of the Earth with the power of 2 times less than at the moment.
Previously, scientists believed that the young Earth had a denser atmosphere to compensate for weak sunlight. However, recent research by American scientists from Washington state University have clearly shown that the gas shell of a planet, by contrast, was weaker than its current state, and the pressure on the Earth’s surface was two times less than the value fixed today. The data of a research project published in the journal Nature Geoscience.
Geologists have studied the lava deposits of the age of about 2.7 billion years to identify the number of air bubbles, trapped within a solid substance. Calculating the number of bubbles, scientists estimate the amount of pressure observed on the planet in its early periods of life. American geologists in the process of learning helped Australian colleagues from the University of Western Australia, which indicated a layer of basaltic lava near the Beasley river. About 2.7 billion years ago lava flows went under the water and staring glassy-like substance.
It turned out that earlier in the planet’s atmosphere was much easier than it is now. Bubbles from lava point to the fact that the atmospheric pressure at that time was less than half today’s. Atmosphere affect a planet’s physical parameters: the strength of the wind and other climatic conditions, as well as the boiling point of the liquid.
