Carbon Cycle
Carbon Cycle
Carbon Cycle
What is Carbon?
❏ Carbon is a non-metallic element.
❏ At room temperature it is in a solid state.
❏ Carbon exists in different forms,including
graphite,diamond and graphene.
❏ Depending on its form carbon has different
properties.
❏ Carbon is made up of just one type of atom.This
means carbon is an element.
❏ Carbon atoms are arranged in a regular
pattern,meaning carbon is solid at room
temperature.
What is Carbon Cycle?
❏ The carbon cycle is nature's way of reusing carbon atoms, which
travel from the atmosphere into organisms in the Earth and then
back into the atmosphere over and over again. Most carbon is stored
in rocks and sediments, while the rest is stored in the ocean,
atmosphere, and living organisms.
Fossil Fuel, a Carbon
Deposit
What is Fossil Fuel?
❏ Fossil fuels are formed from the decomposition of buried
carbon-based organisms that died millions of years ago.
❏ Carbon based organisms are all living organisms.
❏ The fossil fuel are non-renewable and currently
supply around 80% of the world's energy.
❏ Fossil fuels create carbon-rich deposits that are
extracted and burned for energy.
❏ The energy conversion goes from chemical energy
stored in the fuels, to heat energy as it burns which
is converted to kinetic energy as it drives large
turbines and finally this is converted to electrical
energy.
H ow does Fossil fuel release Carbon Dioxide?
Sea water contains around 50 times more carbon dioxide than the air in the atmosphere.
The carbon dioxide dissolves in the sea to form carbonic acid which converts carbonates into bicarbonates.
Carbon Dioxide, Earth’s
temperature regulator.
❏ The Earth absorbs most of the energy reaching its surface, a
small fraction is reflected. In total approximately 70% of
incoming radiation is absorbed by the atmosphere and the
Earth's surface while around 30% is reflected back to space
and does not heat the surface.
❏ Carbon Dioxide has the unique property of absorbing infrared
rays of the sun,thus,keeping the earth warm.
● Sunlight travels through space at nearly 300,000 kilometers per
second (186,000 miles per second). When sunlight strikes the
Earth, it is mostly reflected or absorbed. Reflected light
bounces back into space while absorbed light is the source of
energy that drives processes in the atmosphere, hydrosphere,
and biosphere.
Weathering
What is weathering?
❏ Weathering is the breakdown of rocks at the Earth's
surface, by the action of rainwater, extremes of
temperature, and biological activity.
There are three types of weathering;
1. Physical
2. Chemical
3. Biological
Chemical
❏ Chemical weathering changes the molecular structure of
rocks and soil.
❏ Carbon dioxide reacts with water in solution to form the
weak acid, carbonic acid.
❏ Carbonic acid disassociates into hydrogen ions and
bicarbonate ions.
❏ The hydrogen ions and water react with most common
minerals (silicates and carbonates) altering the minerals.
Physical
❏ The process that breaks rocks apart without changing
their chemical composition.
Biological
❏ Biological weathering occurs when plants break up rocks
with roots or root exudates.
Role of Carbon Cycle in
Maintaining the Atmospheric
Composition
Role of Carbon Cycle Maintaining Atmospheric
Composition
Advantages