Page:On the Influence of Carbonic Acid in the Air upon the Temperature of the Earth.pdf/9

Rh carbonic acid in the air loses all foundation in fact, notwithstanding that enormous quantities of carbonic acid, in the course of time, have been fixed in carbonates, if we consider more closely the processes by means of which carbonic acid has in all times been supplied to the atmosphere. From these we may well conclude that enormous variations have occurred, but not that the variation has always proceeded in the same direction.

“Carbonic acid is supplied to the atmosphere by the following processes:—(1) volcanic exhalations, and geological phenomena connected therewith; (2) combustion of carbonaceous meteorites in the higher regions of the atmosphere; (3) combustion and decay of organic bodies; (4) decomposition of carbonates; (5) liberation of carbonic acid mechanically inclosed in minerals on their fracture or decomposition. The carbonic acid of the air is consumed chiefly by the following processes: (6) formation of carbonates from silicates on weathering; and (7) the consumption of carbonic acid by vegetative processes. The ocean, too, plays an important role as a regulator of the quantity of carbonic acid in the air by means of the absorptive power of its water, which gives off carbonic acid as its temperature rises, and absorbs it as it cools. The processes named under (4) and (5) are of little significance, so that they may be omitted. So too the processes (3) and (7); for the circulation of matter in the organic world goes on so rapidly that their variations cannot have any sensible influence. From this we must except periods in which great quantities of organisms were stored up in sedimentary formations and thus subtracted from the circulation, or in which such stored-up products were, as now, introduced anew into the circulation. The source of carbonic acid named in (2) is wholly incalculable.

“Thus the processes (1), (2), and (6) chiefly remain as balancing each other. As the enormous quantities of carbonic acid (representing a pressure of many atmospheres) that are now fixed in the limestone of the Earth's crust cannot be conceived to have existed in the air but as an insignificant fraction of the whole at any one time since organic life appeared on the globe, and since therefore the consumption through weathering and formation of carbonates must have been compensated by means of continuous supply, we must regard volcanic exhalations as the chief source of carbonic acid for the atmosphere.

“But this source has not flowed regularly and uniformly.