What would happen if the oxygen in air disappeared
completely disappears from the Earth?
99.99% of life forms on earth require oxygen for survival, as they use oxygen to biologically burn the food they eat, to obtain energy. So, without oxygen, all life forms will lose their ability to perform life processes, and die. Plants produce oxygen during photosynthesis, but that may not be sufficient for all their other life processes. So, they would also perish.
Only anaerobic bacteria and sulphur bacteria will survive. Anaerobic bacteria derive energy without using oxygen, by simple breakdown of glucose into alcohol/lactic acid. Sulphur bacteria use sulphur in the same way as oxygen since, sulphur and oxygen are similar electronically i.e. they belong to same column of the periodic table, with 6 valence electrons and sulphur is just below oxygen
disappeared for say 10 seconds?
A typical human breathes between 12 and 20 times per minute at a rate primarily influenced by carbon dioxide concentration, and thus pH, in the blood. With each breath, a volume of about 0.6 litres is exchanged from an active lung volume (tidal volume + functional residual capacity) of about 3 litres. Normal Earth atmosphere is about 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and 1% argon, carbon dioxide, and other gases. After just two or three breaths of nitrogen, the oxygen concentration in the lungs would be low enough for some oxygen already in the bloodstream to exchange back to the lungs and be eliminated by exhalation. “Crude simulation of oxygen transport through the lungs and bloodstream suggests that the partial pressure of oxygen in arterial blood would be about 50% of saturation 1 minute after switching gases and would reach zero within 3 minutes.”
Now the question is particularly asking for “What would happen if the oxygen in air disappeared for say 10 seconds?” This would happen if oxygen is removed gradually. If the oxygen is removed immediately, atmospheric pressure would fall and person could suffer from Decompression sickness (DCS). As removing all of oxygen from atmosphere would amount to climbing to an altitude of above 2100 metre. Although there is a less chance of it developing in a perfectly healthy individual at such pressure, but still there is a theoretical risk. Nevertheless, there is very little evidence of altitude DCS occurring among healthy individuals ( who have not been underwater diving ) at pressure altitudes below 5,500 m (18,000 ft). The higher the altitude of exposure the greater is the risk of developing altitude DCS. Although exposures to incremental altitudes above 5,500 m (18,000 ft) show an incremental risk of altitude DCS, they do not show a direct relationship with the severity of the various types of DCS. Individual exposures to pressure altitudes between 5,500 m (18,000 ft) and 7,500 m (24,600 ft) have shown a low occurrence of altitude DCS.
Decompression sickness https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De… (DCS; also known as divers’ disease, the bends or caisson disease) describes a condition arising from dissolved gases coming out of solution into bubbles inside the body on depressurisation. DCS most commonly refers to problems arising from underwater diving decompression (i.e., during ascent), but may be experienced in other depressurisation events such as working in a caisson, flying in unpressurised aircraft, and extra-vehicular activity from spacecraft.
When workers leave a pressurized caisson or a mine that has been pressurized to keep water out, they will experience a significant reduction in ambient pressure. A similar pressure reduction occurs when astronauts exit a space vehicle to perform a space-walk or extra-vehicular activity, where the pressure in their spacesuit is lower than the pressure in the vehicle.
The original name for DCS was “caisson disease”. This term was introduced in the 19th century, when caissons under pressure were used to keep water from flooding large engineering excavations below the water table, such as bridge supports and tunnels. Workers spending time in high ambient pressure conditions are at risk when they return to the lower pressure outside the caisson if the pressure is not reduced slowly. DCS was a major factor during construction of Eads Bridge, when 15 workers died from what was then a mysterious illness, and later during construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, where it incapacitated the project leader Washington Roebling
If all the oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere disappeared for one hour, how many humans would survive to repopulate Earth?
Depends on what’s your definition of “in earths atomosphere.” Technically evrything on earth is in its atmosphere. So, if you meant quite literally on the oxygen on earth disappeared then. Not only would every human on earth die, but most animals on earth would die as well. Also consider the ecological effects of a sudden mass extinction. Another important factor would be the change in atmospheric pressure. Since oxygen makes up 21% of the atmosphere it should become significantly lighter. Which is potentially deadly, although I’m no expert.
If however you were only talking about the oxygen that is free flowing within the atmosphere than some people will survive. Those include people who are already hooked up to an artificial source of oxygen, or are close enough to one to be able to reach it before passing out. That includes, but is not limited to some sick and elderly, people who are on a plane, peoe who are scuba diving. Of course even some of these people would inevitably die as well if they have less than an hour of oxygen and would need the wherewithal to locate another source as well as the mobility of their current source in order to reach a new source. Again all of the ecological consequences of the loss of every species that requires oxygen could be enough to render the earth uninhabitable. You still have to worry about the consequences of such a drastic change in atmospheric pressure and then sudden reversion after an hour. These factors could be the nail in the coffin not only to humans, but complex life on earth in general.
What if the world lost all its atmospheric oxygen (O2) for 5 seconds?
if you mean all oxygen atoms, the consequences would be huge and well documented. If you mean atmospheric O2, air pressures all over the world would drop significantly, but such an even removal wouldn’t have any clear effects. Every car and plane would stall, but they’d coast for a few seconds then easily restart. Fires would go out, but the gasses would retain such heat that they would reignite as soon as oxygen returned. Gas fires, however, would stay out, which means every gas fired furnace and flare would simultaneously snuff out.
The interesting thing is that, in terms of breathing, we probably wouldn’t notice. Our bodies can’t detect oxygen deficiency, we can only detect high carbon dioxide levels. As long as CO2 isn’t building up in our blood, we don’t feel like we’re suffocating. And five seconds isn’t long enough to get seriously oxygen-deprived, so we’d just notice a drop and sudden renewal of air pressure.
Actually, it would be disappointingly undramatic. The phenomenon of a hundred million cars stalling at once would get some attention, and people monitoring air pressure would notice the blip there, but we’d never figure out the cause and eventually just shrug it off.
Oxygen Crises?
What would happen if oxygen suddenly disappeared?
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- Everyone at the beach would get sunburns. Ozone is molecular oxygen and blocks the majority of UV light. Without it, we are toast.
- The daytime sky would get darker. With fewer particles in the atmosphere to scatter blue light, the sky would get a bit less blue and a bit more black.
- Every internal combustion engine would stall. This means that every airplane taking off from a runway would also crash to the ground. Every vehicle would stop in its tracts.
- All pieces of untreated metal would instantly spot-weld to one another. This is one of the more interesting side effects. The reason metals don’t weld on contact is they are coated in a layer of oxidation. In vacuum conditions, metal welds without any intermediate liquid phase (Cold welding).
- Everyone’s inner ear would explode. We would lose about 21 percent of the air pressure in an instant, equivalent to being instantly teleported to the top of the Andes (elevation, about 13,000 feet).
- Every building made out of concrete would turn to dust. Oxygen is an important binder in concrete structures (as carbon dioxide or CO2), and without it, the compounds will not hold their rigidity.
- Every living cell would explode in a haze of hydrogen gas. Water is one third oxygen; without it, the hydrogen turns into gaseous state and expands in volume. We would die instantly.
- The oceans would evaporate and disperse into space. As oxygen disappears from the oceans’ water, the hydrogen component becomes an unbound free gas. Hydrogen gas, being the lightest, will rise to the upper troposphere and slowly disperse into space.
- Everything above ground would immediately go into free fall. As oxygen makes up about 45 percent of the Earth’s crust and mantle, there is suddenly a lot less beneath our feet to hold everything up.
- Everyone at the beach would get sunburns. Ozone is molecular oxygen, and blocks the majority of UV light. Without it we are toast.
- The day-time sky would get darker. With fewer particles in the atmosphere to scatter blue light, the sky would get a bit less blue and a bit more black.
- Every internal combustion engine would stall. This means that every airplane taking off from a runway would likely crash to the ground, while planes in flight could glide for some time.
- All pieces of untreated metal would instantly spot weld to each other. This is one of the more interesting side effects. The reason metals don’t weld on contact is they are coated in a layer of oxidation. In vacuum conditions, metal welds without any intermediate liquid phase (Cold welding).
- Everyone’s inner ear would explode. As mentioned, we would lose about 21% of the air pressure in an instant (~ from sea level to 2000m elevation), so expect some serious hearing loss.
- Every building made out of concrete would turn to dust. Oxygen is an important binder in concrete structures (really, the CO2 is), and without it the compounds do not hold their rigidity.
- Every living cell would explode in a haze of hydrogen gas. Water is 88.8% oxygen; without it the hydrogen turns into gaseous state and expands in volume. Molecular weight of Water
- The oceans would evaporate and bleed into space. As oxygen disappears from the oceans’ water, the hydrogen component becomes an unbound free gas. Hydrogen gas, being the lightest, will rise to the upper troposphere and slowly bleed into space through Atmospheric escape.
- Everything above ground would immediately go into free fall. As oxygen makes up about ~45% of the Earth’s crust and mantle, there is suddenly a lot less “stuff” beneath your feet to hold everything up.
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