Re: Planet with extra nitrogen

Kevin (ktn3654@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx) writes:
Most people don't find atmospheric nitrogen to be very exciting
stuff. Oxygen is what gets all the attention. But I've always
wondered what it would be like if the nitrogen level were different.
So imagine a basically Earthlike planet, with an oxygen level
similar to Earth's, but with a nitrogen pressure ten times higher.
(The _total_ atmospheric pressure will also be about ten times higher.)
Is this plausible? Seems to me that it probably is. You'd need a
higher primordial nitrogen concentration in the planet, which you could
get via a few extra planetesimals from way out in the outer regions of
the protoplanetary disk. The total amount of nitrogen locked into
nitrates and nitrites in the Earth's crust is comparable to the amount
in the atmosphere, so it seems logical that more primordial nitrogen
would translate into more atmospheric nitrogen.
What would such a planet be like? It wouldn't be terribly
friendly to humans. You would suffer from nitrogen narcosis, aka
"rapture of the deep." The mental impairment would be equivalent to
being seriously drunk.
But surely life could adapt. Would there be lots of large flying
animals? Flight would be easier in such a thick atmosphere. What
would the weather be like? Would it be dry? There might be a tendency
for raindrops to stay up in the clouds rather than falling!
And how would the surface chemistry be affected? I suppose there
would be more nitrates; would that help algae and bacteria? Any
thoughts will be appreciated.

Off the top of my head: more wind erosion and so on (trees will probably
need shorter, thicker trunks, stronger leaves). Fewer fires; internal
combustion engines might have difficulties. Lungs will have to handle
denser gases with more momentum in the flow. My gut feeling is direct
chemical effects will be small, as nitrogen is so inert. Not sure
what would happen to the ozone layer given the denser and deeper
atmosphere; maybe not much change. Ballooning would be easier and might
have been adopted by the local "birds" or "insects".

--John Park
.

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