Hi Glenn
----- Original Message -----
From: glenn morton
To: Adam Crowl ; asa@calvin.edu
Sent: Saturday, June 03, 2000 5:45 PM
Subject: Re: Methane in the late Archean
Adam wrote:
>Adam: To me this is suggestive of a Concordist scenario in which the Earth
is enshrouded in >aerosols formed from photochemical reactions on methane in
the upper atmosphere, thus covering >the heavens but allowing light to pass
through producing a diurnal cycle. It's believed that the >Sun's UV
production is decreasing over the aeons so in the late Archean upper
atmospheric >processes would have been greater than the present day. Also
methane implies life since that's >about the only way it can be produced in
sufficient quantities under so much photochemical >breakdown.
Can you provide either a reference or calculations to show that such
aerosols would form in the requisite amounts? What are the chemical
pathways and what is the composition of the aerosols?
I am skeptical that this would work.
glenn
I can appreciate your scepticism, but my argument is more by analogy with
what is happening in the atmosphere of Titan, which is under much lower UV
levels than even Earth of the present day. Of course abundance of methane is
also another factor determining how dense the coverage is - and currently we
don't have a clear picture of what methane abundance was like back then.
Perhaps Paul is right and all Genesis conveys is spiritual truth wrapped in
pre-Copernican science.
Adam
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