Mauna Loa Carbon Dioxide Essay - 1,498 words

... locked into the melted minerals. If volcanic rocks erupt on the earth's crust, such as the Andean volcanoes, then magma can interact with carbonate rocks such as chalk as it travels up through the mantle or lower crust, picking up carbon dioxide on the way. In subduction zones, where the ocean floor goes down into the mantle some carbonate rocks do get taken down and melted, recycling their carbon dioxide content, but this is a minor source compared with the mantle. Carbon is quite common deep in the earth, found either as the element itself (graphite or diamond under very high pressures), or as carbon dioxide.


None of the common minerals in magmatic rock contains carbon, so when magma cools and solidifies carbon is one of the 'left-over' elements. If there is enough oxygen around, then it will combine to form carbon dioxide. Where does the carbon dioxide that's found in volcanic lavas come from? The carbon dioxide comes from the deep mantle where it is dissolved in the rocks that melt to form the magma (magma = any molten rock beneath the surface) which eventually reach the surface as lava. As the magma ascends the pressure acting on it decreases and eventually the various gases become saturated and ex solve (the opposite of dissolve) into gas bubbles.


The first to ex solve is carbon dioxide (the least soluble), then later (nearer the surface) water vapour and sulphur dioxide come out. It is the expansion and joining up of the gas bubbles which tears the magma up into lumps or clots which form the pumice or scoria in explosive eruptions. Carbon is quite a common element deep in the earth, either as the element (graphite, or under very high pressures, diamond) or in carbon dioxide contained in magmas or rocks. None of the common minerals in magmatic (igneous) rocks contain carbon, so when the magma cools down and solidifies, carbon is one of the 'left over' elements.


If there is enough oxygen around, it will combine with the carbon to form carbon dioxide. Is there any evidence of earthquake or volcanic activity in the past in the polar regions? There are at least 6 volcanoes in Antarctica - Mount Bird, Coulman Island, Mount Discovery, Mount Erebus, Mount Harcourt and Mount Terror. There aren't volcanoes as such in the Arctic because there is no land mass there.


There may well be volcanoes under the ice at the bottom of the ocean, but we don't tend to call things volcanoes until we can see them! The largest islands, in the western region, form volcanic island arcs that rise from the broad continental shelf along the eastern edge of the Eurasian Plate. They include Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, New Guinea, and New Zealand. The oceanic islands, collectively called Oceania, are the tops of mountains built up from the ocean basin by extruding molten rock. The Pacific Ocean contains more than 30, 000 islands of this type; their total land area, however, amounts to only one-quarter of one per cent of the surface area of the ocean. The mountains that remain submerged are called seamounts.


In many areas, particularly the South Pacific, the land features above the sea surface are accretions of coral reef. Along the eastern edge of the Pacific, the continental shelf is narrow and steep, with few island areas. The major groups are the Galapagos at the equator. Which rise from the Nazca Plate, the Aleutians in the north, which are part of the North American continental shelf.


The islands of Hawaii, which rise some 5, 550 m (more than 18, 000 ft) from the sea floor of the central Pacific, reaching in Mauna Kea a height of 4, 205 m (13, 796 ft) above sea level. Edinburgh Castle, historically the principal royal fortress of Scotland, perched on Castle Rock, a massive volcanic rock that towers dramatically over the city. Overlooking the North Sea, the rock has long occupied a key strategic position on the Firth of Forth and has consequently been fortified from earliest times. St Margaret's Chapel, built in the 12 th century during the reign of David I in memory of Margaret, queen of Malcolm III, is almost certainly the oldest structure on the rock. Because of continuous remodelling and alteration of the fortifications on the rock over the centuries, little remains of ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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Essay Tags: ocean floor, active volcano, mauna loa, carbon dioxide, molten rock

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