In the scenario provided there was a mountain village in a valley between two mountains. One of the mountains was an old volcano. One of the things a volcano releases into the air is carbon dioxide, which is toxic to human beings in certain quantities.
- 1% can cause drowsiness with prolonged exposure.
- At 2% it is mildly narcotic and causes increased blood pressure and pulse rate, and causes reduced hearing.
- At about 5% it causes stimulation of the respiratory center, dizziness, confusion and difficulty in breathing accompanied by headache and shortness of breath. Panic attacks may also occur at this concentration.
- At about 8% it causes headache, sweating, dim vision, tremor and loss of consciousness after exposure for between five and ten minutes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide
Using what we know about density and the weight of certain molecules we can see that the carbon dioxide rose out of the volcano and fell into the valley where the village lay, and killed everyone because the carbon dioxide levels got too high.
Nitrogen=1.251 g/L
CO2=1.562 g/L
oxygen=1.429g/L
Air is about 71% nitrogen and 21% oxygen. Both of those still weigh less than CO2, and especially Nitrogen, the more common one. The volcano released this high weight CO2 into the air and with the right wind conditions the CO2 fell into the valley and the villagers were killed by it. Because the CO2 was heavier it sunk.
No comments:
Post a Comment