How could you remove all the oxygen from Earth's Atmosphere? Hypothetically

[chemisttree]

The creation of new technologies to serve man and even to save man and the Earth have often times lead to the most destructive of devices. Dynamite was invented by Alfred Nobel to make nitroglyceryn safer to handle but this development also made it safer for use on the battlefield. The promise of limitless energy by splitting the atom ultimately resulted in the most grave of dangers we face today.

It was no different in the time of SecondWorld. The decades before the sun's solar winds diminished saw extended periods of increased, chaotic solar activity. This increased activity created havoc with satellites and ground electrical transmission lines of SecondWorld. A debilitatingly expensive project was begun to augment and control the faltering magnetic field of the Earth itself. Huge nuclear reactors were positioned in favorable locations throughout the world powering massive electromagnets in an effort to place the magnetosphere at such an altitude to shield communications satellites and protect ground based electrical transmission lines. Only modest changes to the magnetic field were ever achieved and the sun entered a quiescent phase... the program was abandoned. The cost of that failed attempt bankrupted the world's banking systems leading to great economic chaos and rise of the Neo-Nazis who seized control of most of the nuclear facilities. Bankrolled by the sale of electrical power to their weaker neighbors, the Neo-Nazis began a program to use the power of the subterranean magnetics initially to place the satellites of unfriendly nations outside the protective umbrella of the magnetosphere. Their research expanded beyond mere amplification to enabling the magnetic pole of the Earth to be placed at will anywhere they desired. Initially this was believed to be a technology that would render the various magnetic compasses of an adversary useless in a time of battle. Nobody could forsee the awesome ability this gave it's handlers when the iron cloud arrived...

 

[RobinsonJ]

I like it, Chemisttree, but I have to stick with recent and actual history for this book. That's how the thriller genre is. I have to root everything in actual history, or slightly modified history. It's a pain, but sells more books. :) Maybe the devices, in orbit, could increase the magnetic field over a certain area, drawing the iron cloud over a specific target. I've got most of the details worked out by combining several actual Nazi technologies that were never perfected, but the crux of it all is getting these UFO-like craft to pull the iron in and slam it down on a portion of the planet, removing the oxygen over, say, Tokyo for a period of days. Easy, right? Heh.

Also, Chemisttree, didn't come up with the iron cloud theory originally? If you want to be in the acknowledgments, just let me know your name!

-- Jeremy

 

[chemisttree]

I am Chemisttree of the Physics Forum! If you prefer I will email you with the actuals...

Wouldn't it be cooler to acknowledge an anonymous cyber advisor rather than the real life? I mean, since I already have the "Science Advisor" medal, shouldn't I use it?

 

[RobinsonJ]

It's up to you. If you prefer to stay anonymous, that's fine. But if you want the resplendent glory of being in the acknowledgments, you can send your info to info@jeremyrobinsononline.com.

 

[ecsspace]

Also remember that the Earth's crust is 46% by weight composed of oxygen.
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/Hbase/tables/elabund.html
Guess it's bound up in the rocks, water volume in aquifers, etc,
I think that the total volume of the Earth is composed of 30% oxygen...
Good topic for thread: consensus on Earth's composition by element percentage.

 

[geophysics10]

Massive electrical storm turns O2 to O3?

 

[geophysics10]

Oh... I'm off topic.

 

[Phrak]

You're not off topic, but you have revived a very old thread.

However, I sympathize with the original poster's concerns: How can we eliminate all this corrosive agent from the atmosphere, so detrimental to life?? It's the fault of the green stuff of course. The green stuff must go. It's completely destroyed the benign methane-carbon dioxide atmosphere beneficial to better bacterial life.

We must burn all the green things to extinction, but before that it is vital that the sequestered carbon be brought back to the surface of the planet to both eliminate the killer O₂ and bring back a natural CO₂ environment so that life can live anaerobically as nature intended.

 

[Smock]

Here is an idea: You could have man in the future become very dependent upon O2 burning machines and robots. Man has become so abundant that they really totally on these machines and could not live without them. However, as is known by many scientists, the machines will use up the oxygen faster than plants and algaes can replenish it. Even though humans know this is their end they can't turn off the robots and kill millions of people who the robots support. So the humans just march on to extinction caused at their own hands.

I know that changes a lot of your book but it is a cool idea.

 

[Nik_2213]

Uh, isn't some aurora research done by using microwave transmitter to 'tickle' ionosphere ? Changing the low-latitude effects might have to wait for Weird Science or opportunist strike during Solar Max CME...

FWIW, didn't Isaac Asimov do 'Currents of Space', and Arthur Conan Doyle do 'Poison Belt' ?? You could have your protagonists mention them...

Slightly OT, but I read recently about hypothetical photosynthetic organisms that released Chlorine instead of Oxygen: Setting them loose in our oceans would be *bad*...

 

[jreelawg]

It might be easier to remove the oxygen over a longer period of time. The main characters could also be an astronauts instead of a diver. Mysteriously, mission control, stops responding, and astronauts lose all contact with earth. They are meanwhile quite a ways away from earth, and don't get back for some time, could be a week, a month, or a year. Somehow only one survives. Maybe a few could die in space trying to repair something, only one survives in the end, and ends up in the ocean climbing out of the capsule with a space suite on looking at a red sky.

 

[onomatomanic]

*bump*

Participants of this thread may like to know that the novel was published a couple of weeks ago, and has been reviewed by Publishers Weekly. Snippet below:

For help developing the crazy, but plausible, science at the core of the SecondWorld story, I must thank “Chemisttree” from physicsforums.com, where I received ideas and advice from a number of scientists in a variety of fields.

 

[Evo]

*bump*

Participants of this thread may like to know that the novel was published a couple of weeks ago, and has been reviewed by Publishers Weekly. Snippet below:

Good luck OP with your book!

And YAY chemistree!

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Well done chemisttree! Very exciting!

 

[chemisttree]

Oh WOW!

Thanks Jeremy.

 

[shivakumar06]

we know by ultra violet radiation the oxygen will converted to ozone. so if huge quantity of ultraviolet radiation are applied it may definitely convert every oxygen molecule to ozone at least temporally

 

[Drakkith]

And fry everything on the planet at the same time most likely! One hell of a situation to get out of!

 

[ImaLooser]

Hey all,

I'm a science thriller author (www.jeremyrobinsononline.com) and I've got a new story idea with a really big problem. Basically, I need to remove all of the oxygen from Earth's atmosphere, preferably fast, but I can adapt to a longer time frame if need be. Now, this is for a novel so it only needs to be rooted by facts...so imaginations are welcome.

ALSO possible for the story would be poisoning the atmosphere...keeping the O2, but making it toxic. But removing the O2 is somehow cooler, I think.

I have some ideas, but nothing great. Any thoughts? Oh, and this would have to be either natural (cosmic counts) or natural but triggered by man. No doomsday devices like the O2 Destroyer in Godzilla. :)

Thanks for your help!

-- Jeremy Robinson

Huge electrical discharge converts it all to ozone? ?