AQA GCSE Chemistry 8462
Atomic Structure and the Periodic Table
Bonding, Structure, and the Properties of Matter
Chemical Analysis
Chemical Changes
Chemistry of the Atmosphere
Energy Changes
Organic Chemistry
Quantitative Chemistry
The Rate and Extent of Chemical Change
Using Resources
Chemistry of the Atmosphere
The Earth's early atmosphere
- 3 things to know
- Paper 2
Overview
Why the evidence is limited and theories keep changing, the volcanic origin of the gases and the oceans, carbon dioxide with little oxygen, the Mars and Venus comparison, and how carbon dioxide dissolved into carbonate sediments.
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Why is the evidence about the Earth's early atmosphere so limited?
Why can scientists not be certain which account of the early atmosphere is correct?
Questions from this subtopic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
Why is the evidence about the Earth's early atmosphere so limited?
Model answer
The Earth formed about 4.6 billion years ago, so almost no direct evidence of the conditions then has survived.
- 2
What has happened to scientific ideas about how the early atmosphere formed?
Model answer
They have changed and developed over time as new evidence and new interpretations have appeared.
- 3
Roughly how long ago did the Earth form?
Model answer
About 4.6 billion years ago.
- 4
Why can scientists not be certain which account of the early atmosphere is correct?
Model answer
The evidence is limited and indirect, so more than one theory can fit what is known.
- 5
What is thought to have released the gases that made up the Earth's early atmosphere?
Model answer
Intense volcanic activity during the first billion years of the Earth's existence.
- 6
How are the oceans thought to have formed?
Model answer
Water vapour released by volcanoes cooled and condensed to liquid water.
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