Scientists have made an incredible discovery about volcanoes

A large proportion of volcanic emissions has been generated by sediment organic matter.

Scientists said that a large part of the carbonic acid and other gases emitted by volcanoes, were generated by the reserves of organic matter formed millions of years ago. This demonstrates the link between geological processes within the Earth and evolution of life on it.

In the study, researchers examined the isotopic and chemical composition of about 80 eruptions of volcanoes from different parts of the Earth. As scholars have noted, geologists quite a long time noticed that the composition of the gases and magma emitted by different volcanoes can be very different, which was attributed to differences in mineral and isotopic composition in those deep regions of the mantle where the lava moved to the surface of the planet.

After analyzing the concentration of isotopes of helium and carbon in the emissions of these volcanoes, scientists noticed something unusual – their share depended on the region in which Lands were the centers of geological activity. For example, carbon dioxide emitted by volcanoes continental, contained much more “heavy” carbon-13 and less “light” helium-3 than the emissions of oceanic volcanoes.

The reason for this, as the researchers note, hiding in the distant geological past, and was connected with the traces of life that existed on Earth hundreds of millions of years ago. A considerable share of volcanic carbon dioxide emissions were derived from mantle and sediments of organic matter, moving towards the mantle together with the crust, not the stocks of inorganic carbon existing in the earth since its formation.

Previously, researchers believed that the proportion of carbon isotopes in volcanic emissions are constant values, which changed little throughout the existence of the Earth. This property of volcanic emissions, the researchers used in order to estimate the amount of oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere in the distant past, and to assess how changing environmental conditions on the planet in different eras.

The movement of continents, mergers and breakups must have been hard to change the proportion of isotopes of CO2 emissions from volcanoes and in the atmosphere and in sedimentary rocks formed from the remains of living beings. All this greatly complicates the recovery picture of how life evolved on Earth, but it points to the close relationship between its evolution and the behavior of volcanoes, conclude the authors.

Previously, scientists warned of the destructive awakening of the volcano Pektusan because of the DPRK nuclear test. It is located on the border of North Korea (province Yangando) and China (Jilin province). Pangari from the site where the DPRK is experiencing a nuclear weapon, the volcano Pektusan are only 115 km.

paradox