New data challenge Earth atmosphere theory

TROY, N.Y., Sept. 19 (UPI) -- U.S. geochemists challenged commonly held theories about how gases are expelled from the Earth and how a planet's atmosphere is formed.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute researchers said their new theory could change the way scientists view the timing and mechanism involved in the formation of Earth’s atmosphere, as well as the atmospheres of Mars and Venus.

The team, led by Professor E. Bruce Watson, said it has found substantial evidence that argon atoms are strongly bound in the minerals of Earth’s mantle and move through those minerals at a much slower rate than previously thought. In fact, they said they discovered even volcanic activity is unlikely to dislodge argon atoms from their resting places within the mantle.

Watson said that finding conflicts with widely held theories on how gases moved through early Earth to form our atmosphere and oceans.

The study that included Professor Daniele Cherniak and postdoctoral researcher Jay Thomas is described in the journal Nature.