Life on earth belongs to carbon-based life, and carbon is undoubtedly the most important element on earth. So, how much carbon is there on earth? Such an important question has never had an exact answer, only an estimate.

About 10 years ago, more than 1,000 geoscientists from dozens of countries around the world decided to join forces to challenge the problem. They installed measuring instruments on nearly all volcanic and geologically active belts around the world to record the total amount of carbon (mainly carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide) released from the ground, then aggregated the data for analysis and came up with 18.5 The number of billion gigatons (1 gigaton equals 1 billion tons) is the total amount of all the carbon on earth.

Most of this carbon is deeply buried in the ground, and the surface part (including the ocean, soil and atmosphere) contains only 43,500 gigatons of carbon, which is a very small proportion of the total carbon on the earth.

Among all surface carbons, the carbon buried in the deep seabed is about 37,000 gigatons, accounting for 85.1%; the total carbon in marine biological sediments is 3,000 gigatons, accounting for about 6.9%; terrestrial ecological The total carbon in the system is about 2,000 Gt, accounting for 4.6%; the carbon contained in the ocean surface is about 900 Gt, accounting for about 2%; the total carbon contained in the atmosphere is 590 Gt, accounting for only 2%. 1.4% of total surface carbon.

From this perspective, the earth beneath our feet is like a ticking time bomb, with huge hidden dangers. Fortunately, there is a carbon cycle on the earth, which maintains the total amount of carbon in the earth's atmosphere at a relatively stable level, and life has continued to this day.

The details of the carbon cycle are quite complicated. As ordinary readers, we only need to know that this cycle mainly consists of two parts. First, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere enters the body of organisms due to photosynthesis, and part of the biological carbon sinks to the bottom of the sea with the corpses of marine organisms, and then is buried in the ground due to plate movement. Second, the carbon buried in the ground is turned back to the surface due to geological movements, and then released back into the atmosphere by the volcanic eruption, where it can be absorbed by plants. The main reason why the earth's atmospheric temperature can remain relatively stable is that in the last 500 million years, the earth's geological activities have been relatively stable, so that the carbon released into the atmosphere through volcanic eruptions has been maintained at 280 million tons to 3. At the level of 600 million tons, it is exactly the same as the total amount of biological carbon that sinks into the ground.

Geological studies have shown that in the past 500 million years, the earth's carbon cycle balance has been severely disrupted five times, including the asteroid impact that occurred 65 million years ago. At that time, an asteroid with a diameter of more than 10 kilometers hit a large hole in the crust, releasing 425 gigatons to 1,400 gigatons of carbon at once. The global climate change caused by this carbon has lasted for hundreds of years, leading to the extinction of about 75% of species, including the then terrestrial overlords, the dinosaurs.

Statistics show that since the Industrial Revolution, humans have released about 2,000 gigatons of carbon into the atmosphere by burning fossil energy and other means, which is much more than the total amount of carbon released by the asteroid impact that killed the dinosaurs. What is even more frightening is that this process is still ongoing. At present, the total amount of carbon emitted into the atmosphere by human activities every year is 40 to 100 times that of the total amount of carbon emitted by volcanic eruptions, which shows that the earth's carbon cycle is seriously out of balance. .

 Life on earth belongs to carbon-based life, and carbon is undoubtedly the most important element on earth. So, how much carbon is there on earth? Such an important question has never had an exact answer, only an estimate.

About 10 years ago, more than 1,000 geoscientists from dozens of countries around the world decided to join forces to challenge the problem. They installed measuring instruments on nearly all volcanic and geologically active belts around the world to record the total amount of carbon (mainly carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide) released from the ground, then aggregated the data for analysis and came up with 18.5 The number of billion gigatons (1 gigaton equals 1 billion tons) is the total amount of all the carbon on earth.

Most of this carbon is deeply buried in the ground, and the surface part (including the ocean, soil and atmosphere) contains only 43,500 gigatons of carbon, which is a very small proportion of the total carbon on the earth.

Among all surface carbons, the carbon buried in the deep seabed is about 37,000 gigatons, accounting for 85.1%; the total carbon in marine biological sediments is 3,000 gigatons, accounting for about 6.9%; terrestrial ecological The total carbon in the system is about 2,000 Gt, accounting for 4.6%; the carbon contained in the ocean surface is about 900 Gt, accounting for about 2%; the total carbon contained in the atmosphere is 590 Gt, accounting for only 2%. 1.4% of total surface carbon.

From this perspective, the earth beneath our feet is like a ticking time bomb, with huge hidden dangers. Fortunately, there is a carbon cycle on the earth, which maintains the total amount of carbon in the earth's atmosphere at a relatively stable level, and life has continued to this day.

The details of the carbon cycle are quite complicated. As ordinary readers, we only need to know that this cycle mainly consists of two parts. First, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere enters the body of organisms due to photosynthesis, and part of the biological carbon sinks to the bottom of the sea with the corpses of marine organisms, and then is buried in the ground due to plate movement. Second, the carbon buried in the ground is turned back to the surface due to geological movements, and then released back into the atmosphere by the volcanic eruption, where it can be absorbed by plants. The main reason why the earth's atmospheric temperature can remain relatively stable is that in the last 500 million years, the earth's geological activities have been relatively stable, so that the carbon released into the atmosphere through volcanic eruptions has been maintained at 280 million tons to 3. At the level of 600 million tons, it is exactly the same as the total amount of biological carbon that sinks into the ground.

Geological studies have shown that in the past 500 million years, the earth's carbon cycle balance has been severely disrupted five times, including the asteroid impact that occurred 65 million years ago. At that time, an asteroid with a diameter of more than 10 kilometers hit a large hole in the crust, releasing 425 gigatons to 1,400 gigatons of carbon at once. The global climate change caused by this carbon has lasted for hundreds of years, leading to the extinction of about 75% of species, including the then terrestrial overlords, the dinosaurs.

Statistics show that since the Industrial Revolution, humans have released about 2,000 gigatons of carbon into the atmosphere by burning fossil energy and other means, which is much more than the total amount of carbon released by the asteroid impact that killed the dinosaurs. What is even more frightening is that this process is still ongoing. At present, the total amount of carbon emitted into the atmosphere by human activities every year is 40 to 100 times that of the total amount of carbon emitted by volcanic eruptions, which shows that the earth's carbon cycle is seriously out of balance. .