The Civil Analyst

  One of carbonaceous gas in the earth atmosphere which takes part in global carbon cycle is Carbon Monoxide. Carbon Monoxide (CO) is a colourless, tasteless and odourless gas which is 96.5% as heavy as air and insoluble in water. Its molecular weight is 28.1 with a boiling point of -191.5ºC and melting point of -205ºC. However, it is not uniformly distributed on earth but can be transported long distances and remains in the atmosphere for a longer duration with an average residence time of 36-110 days. Some basic chemical reactions that yields CO are-       I.         Incomplete combustion of fuel: 2C + O 2 à 2CO     II.         Reactions between carbon dioxide and carbon containing materials at very high temperature such as in blast furnaces: CO 2 + C à 2CO    III.         Dissociation of carbon dioxide at elevated ...

The National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR) in Goa has come out with a study predicting that there would be a 24% increase in the expansion of the Amery Ice Shelf (AIS) boundaries in Antarctica by 2021 and another 24 per cent by 2026 from its 2016 positions. In this article we will see what is Amery Ice Shelf, where it is? And how it impact us? So what is Amery Ice Shelf (AIS)? Situated at the head of Prydz Bay between the Lars Christensen Coast and Ingrid Christensen Coast , the Amery Ice Shelf is a broad ice shelf in Antarctica . The name “Cape Amery” was given to a coastal angle mapped on February 11, 1931. It is part of Mac. Robertson Land. The Amery Ice Shelf is one of the largest glacier drainage basins in the world , located, at about 70ºS Latitude, 70ºE Longitude on the east coast of Antarctica. So the next question comes in our minds that what is Ice Shelves ? Let’s find out. The floating sheets of ice in the oceans is called ‘ ice shelves’ . It plays an...

Now a days, oceanacidification has become a major problem and it is growing rapidly. Ocean acts as a natural carbon sink and absorb more than half of the CO 2 emitted in the atmosphere. Earlier, scientists thought that this might be beneficial for the planet to reduce the Greenhouse effect , as it leaves less carbon dioxide in the air. Moreover, they didn’t care about rising acidification in the Oceans because they thought that rivers carried enough dissolved chemicals from rocks providing buffer to ocean’s pH . Unfortunately, this is not the case as carbon dioxide is dissolving into the oceans so rapidly that this natural buffering has not been able to keep up, corresponding to rapidly decreasing pH in ocean’s surface waters. As those surface layers slowly mixed into deep water, the entire ocean is affected. Taking into account the great diversity of life in the oceans, increased acidification can harm the marine life in different ways. There are various effects of ocean acidificati...

71% area of the earth is covered with water and around 97% of it is stored in oceans. Oceans act as a natural sink for carbon dioxide gas, absorbing 30% of CO 2 released in the atmosphere due to the burning of fossil fuels. Since industrial revolution our oceans have absorbed approximately 525 billion tons of CO 2 from the atmosphere. Presently, oceans are absorbing around 22 million tons of CO 2 per day causing drop in oceans pH level by 0.1 units. The pre-industrialization pH of the ocean water was 8.179 units which dropped to 8.1074 units in the 20 th century and at present it is 8.069 units resulting 30% more acidity in the world’s oceans. Scientists has warned that ocean acidification is rapidly progressing roughly 10 times faster than any time in the last 55 million years. What is Ocean Acidification? The ongoing and consistent drop of pH level of ocean water is referred as ocean acidification, which is mainly caused by uptake of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) from the atmo...

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has defined Acid Rain or Acid Deposition as a form of precipitation with acidic compounds such as  such as sulfuric or nitric acid that fall on the ground from the atmosphere in wet or dry forms. E.g. rain, snow, fog, hail or even dust that is acidic. Normal rain is slightly acidic with a pH of 5.6 whereas pH of acidic rain generally ranges between 4.2-4.4. The term acid rain was firstly coined by Scottish chemist  Robert Angus Smith in 1852, who is also known as the "father of acid rain ." Smith decided on the term while investigating rainwater chemistry near industrial cities in England and Scotland (Refer BaselConvention for transboundary movement of hazardous wastes). He described about this phenomenon in 1872 in the book " Air and Rain: The Beginnings of a Chemical Climatology . "  However, it was not given any attention until the late 1950s when scientists in the United States started studying the phenomenon, and in...

Recent data revealed by the Swarm satellites of the European Space Agency ( ESA) has confirmed the presence of a mysterious anomaly that weakening the Earth’s magnetic field . Named as ‘ South Atlantic Anomaly’ , it spreads all the way from South America to southwest Africa. What is South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA)? Many of us would confuse it with some climatic or oceanic current related phenomena but it’s something else. South Atlantic Anomaly is the behaviour of Earth’s Geo-Magnetic field in a range between South America and Africa. South Atlantic Anomaly is the zone where the Earth’s inner Van Allen radiation belt comes closest to the Earth’s surface, to an altitude of only 200 kilometres. This causes an increased flux of energy particles in this region and exposes the satellites orbiting in the region with higher-than-usual levels of solar radiation. This anomaly is caused due the non-concentricity of the Earth and its magnetic dipole. At this region the Earth’s magnetic field i...