Is the ocean broken?

• As a reference, normal air has a specific gravity of 1.
• If the specific gravity is greater than 1 the gas is heavier than air and the vapor will be found low; the larger the number the heavier the gas is and the lower vapors will be found.
• If the specific gravity is less than 1 the gas is lighter than air and the vapor will be found high; the smaller the number the lighter the gas is and the higher vapors will be found.
• Various vapors can be "layered" when multiple gasses are present.

Gas Specific Gravity
- SG -
Acetylene (ethyne) - C2H2 0.907
Air 1.000
Ammonia - NH3 0.596
Argon - Ar 1.379
Arsine 2.69
Benzene - C6H6 2.6961
Blast Furnace gas 1.02
Butadiene 1.869
Butane - C4H10 2.0061
Carbon dioxide - CO2 1.5189
Carbon monoxide - CO 0.9667
Carbureted Water Gas 0.63
Chlorine - Cl2 2.486
Coke Oven Gas 0.44
Cyclobutane 1.938
Cyclopentane 2.422
Cyclopropane 1.451
Decane 4.915
Digestive Gas (Sewage or Biogas) 0.8
Ethane - C2H6 1.0378
Ethylene (Ethene) - C2H4 0.9683
Fluorine 1.31
Helium - He 0.138
Heptanes 3.459
Hexane 2.973
Hydrogen 0.0696
Hydrogen chloride - HCl 1.268
Hydrogen sulfide - H2S 1.1763
Isobutane 2.01
Isopentane 2.48
Krypton 2.89
Methane - CH4 0.5537
Methyl Chloride 1.74
Natural Gas (typical) 0.60 - 0.70
Neon 0.696
Nitric oxide - NO 1.037
Nitrogen - N2 (pure) 0.9669
Nitrogen - N2 (atmospheric) 0.9723
Nitrous oxide - N2O 1.530
Nonane 4.428
Octane 3.944
Oxygen - O2 1.1044
Ozone 1.660
Pentane 2.487
Phosgene 1.39
Propane - C3H8 1.5219
Propene (Propylene) - C3H6 1.4523
Sasol 0.42
Silane 1.11
Sulfur Dioxide - SO2 2.264
Toluene-Methylbenzene 3.1082
Water Gas (bituminous) 0.71
Water Vapor 0.6218
Xenon 4.53
Resource: Engineering ToolBox http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/

It's interesting that the specific gravity of CO2 is about 1.5 (very heavy) while the specific gravity of methane is about 0.5 (very light). In general, the less dense a gas is, the better it acts as an insulator. Yet, these two gasses seem to not only absorb heat energy, but give it back to result in an overall warming of the object it is insulating?

Air, right in the middle between these two gasses for SG, doesn't seem to behave in that way. Plants require CO2 to respirate and can give of both oxygen and methane. Methane would then raise in the atmosphere where it would absorb heat energy from IR radiation and become even lighter as the heat energy would cause it to expand. At the same time, rising in the atmosphere would mean less and less pressure upon it and further expansion would occur, causing a loss of heat, expanding gasses cool. This is why cumulus clouds form; cold air holds less moisture and that moisture comes out as cloud condensation. That loss of heat would then be radiated into the upper atmosphere, presumably in all directions, including out to space. Maybe methane is a natural heat pump to carry heat away from the surface of the Earth.

-Will (Dragonfly)

 

I'm so scared.
It's just dinosaur farts.
Coprolites happen, a lot of whom serve in the US Congress to this day..

 

Why don't heavy and light gases separate in the atmosphere?

QUESTION:

Everyone must have heard that balloons are filled with helium, and the fact associated with it that helium gas is light and light gases always go upward.

There comes a question to mind: if the molar mass of CO2 is greater than that of O2 and N2, then why doesn't CO2 occupy the lower layer of the atmosphere, since it is heavier than O2 and N2, as in the case of balloons, where helium being light rise upwards?​

ANSWER (1 of 4):

That's because of two reasons. One is entropy, the ultimate force of chaos and disorder. Sure, gases would like to be arranged according to their density, but even above that, they would like to be mixed, because mixing creates a great deal of entropy. If you prevent the mixing, then they would behave just as you expected. Indeed, a balloon filled with CO2 would drop right to the floor and remain there.

On the other hand, if you allow mixing, light gases wouldn't necessarily go upward. Just pierce that balloon with helium, and... Well, you won't actually see much, but in fact, the helium will disperse in the atmosphere and remain there. True, its contents in the upper layers would be somewhat higher, but only somewhat. It is not like a layer of pure helium floating atop all those O2 and N2.

The importance of entropy is by no means limited to gases. Think of all that salt in the oceans. Salt is much more dense than water; wouldn't it just drop to the ocean floor? Well, no, it rather wouldn't.

The other reason is the constant action of winds and currents mentioned by [another person]. They stir the atmosphere (or sea water, for that matter) and make it even more uniform than it might have been otherwise.​

 

"Methane observations from 2005 to 2014 showing the seasonal variations and the difference between northern and southern hemispheres

Computer models showing the amount of methane (parts per million by volume) at the surface (top) and in the stratosphere (bottom)[2]"
"Early in the Earth's history carbon dioxide and methane likely produced a greenhouse effect. The carbon dioxide would have been produced by volcanoes and the methane by early microbes. During this time, Earth's earliest life appeared.[13] These first, ancient bacteria added to the methane concentration by converting hydrogen and carbon dioxide into methane and water. Oxygen did not become a major part of the atmosphere until photosynthetic organisms evolved later in Earth's history. With no oxygen, methane stayed in the atmosphere longer and at higher concentrations than it does today.[14]

The known sources of methane are predominantly located near the Earth's surface.[15] In combination with vertical atmospheric motions and methane's relatively long lifetime, methane is considered to be a well-mixed gas.[16] In other words, the concentration of methane is taken to be constant with respect to height within the troposphere. The dominant sink of methane in the troposphere is reaction with hydroxyl radicals that are formed by reaction of singlet oxygen atoms with water vapor.[17] Methane is also present in the stratosphere, where methane's concentration decreases with height.[17]"
Atmospheric methane - Wikipedia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_methane

Note the difference in the ppmv of methane near the surface and the Stratosphere. With the sources of methane coming from the surface, it clearly rises. It's concentration falls of much above the ozone layer because UV light takes it apart. Another loss of heat energy high in the atmosphere. Methane may be considered a greenhouse gas, of an order of magnitude higher than CO2, but it looks like it is carrying its heat away from the surface.

-Will (Dragonfly)

 

At a mere ~1850 ppb I doubt that methane carries much heat anywhere. Its function as a greenhouse gas is not to convey heat, but to capture and re-radiate infrared energy that might otherwise escape Earth.

I see you didn't include all the charts shown in Wikipedia. These seem relevant to the discussion as well. They show the huge and continuing rise in atmospheric methane in modern times.


Methane concentrations up to September 2020:
A monthly peak of 1900.49 ppb was reached in November 2018.[1]

 

Sea level rise from ice sheets track worst-case climate change scenario

• Ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica have raised the global sea level by 1.8cm since the 1990s
• These rates match the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's worst-case climate warming scenarios
• If these rates continue sea levels are expected to raise by a further 17cm by 2100
• 16 million people will be affected by coastal flooding

 

Woo! Almost an inch in 4 decades! Drowning!
Horsefeathers!
Ice age coming? Who cares?! Not me. Solar flare! Who gives a rat's patoot? Not me!

 

RECORD BREAKING “DANGEROUS” BLIZZARDS ON TRACK TO SMACK THE CANADIAN PRAIRIES THIS WEEKEND https://climate-science.press/2020/11/04/record-breaking-dangerous-blizzards-on-track-to-smack-the-canadian-prairies-this-weekend/?amp=1

 

U.S. Leads the World in Plastic Pollution, New Study Finds

• Between 0.98 and 1.26 million metric tons of plastic were either littered or illegally dumped within the U.S
• 88 percent of plastics meant to be recycled is sent to countries that struggle to adequately recycle.
  
• U.S. added about 2.25 million metric tons of plastic to the environment and up to 1.5 million metric tons of plastic to coastal ecosystems
• Five times as much plastic pollution entered the oceans in 2016 than in 2010
• The upper estimates for plastic waste puts the U.S. at No. 3 in terms of overall contribution to marine plastic pollution

The study was published in Science Advances

 

Fix to food climate problem doesn't require veganism

Current food production techniques are estimated to produce 1.5 trillion tons of greenhouse gases over the next 80 years, which comes from belching cows, fertilizer production, mismanaged soil and food waste. If Earthling did each of the following "half-way", emissions would drop by almost 940 billion tons.

• A nearly complete switch to a plant-rich diet
  
• If almost everyone ate the right number of calories based on their age
• If farming got more carbon efficient — by using less fertilizer, managing soil better and doing better crop rotation
  
• If farms could increase yield through genetics and other methods
• If people waste less food either on their plates, in restaurants or by getting it to people in poorer countries

 

What the hell is a food climate problem?
Sounds made up.

 

Leaving more big fish in the ocean can reduce carbon dioxide emissions

• Large fish, like tuna and sharks, are made up of around 10 to 15 per cent carbon.
  
• When these fish die, they sink rapidly, sequestering that carbon at the bottom of the sea for thousands of years
• When fish are caught, the carbon they contain is partly emitted into the atmosphere as CO2 within days or weeks
• The study found that the carbon footprint of fisheries might be 25 per cent higher than previous estimates
  
• Limiting fishing activities in remote ocean areas would reduce CO2 emissions from fuel and help rebuild depleted fish stocks

The study was published in Science Advances.

 

Fish gotta swim.
People gotta eat them.

 

CO2 is good stuff. Plants like it.

 

Coastal permafrost more susceptible to climate change than previously thought

• It has long been thought that solid permafrost extended offshore
• Recent research has found permafrost to be mostly absent throughout the shallow seafloor along a coastal field site in northeastern Alaska
  
• That means carbon can be released from coastline sources much more easily than previously thought
• Coastal communities are at greater risk of erosion, which can be as great as 13 feet per year

The study was published in Science Advances