420 



In a very remarkable paper') Schloesing pointed out that 

 the quantity of loose carbonic acid present in the bicarbonates 

 of the sea depends upon the tension of the gas, and that, 

 therefore, a decrease in the atmospheric carbonic acid must 

 produce a dissociation of bicarbonates in the sea and, conse- 

 quently, a liberation of the gas. Schloesing calculated that the 

 amount of CO, present in the air is 4.7 kgrs. to every sq. m. 

 of the earth's surface, whereas the corresponding quantity in 

 the sea is, according to him, 98 kgrs. He rightly concluded 

 that, if equilibrium is once established, every alteration in the 

 percentage in the atmosphere will be counteracted by the sea, 

 which may give off or absorb comparatively large quantities of 

 carbonic acid without any appreciable alteration in its tension. 



By applying my recent determinations of tensions and 

 quantities of carbonic acid in seawater we will get a still clearer 

 insight into these processes. The preceding paper pp. 358 — 59. 



According to «La grande encyclopédie^^ the total surface 

 of the ocean amounts to 3.74 x 10'* sq. m. and its mean depth 

 to 3500 m. (3300 in the Atlantic and 3800 in the Pacific). The 

 total quantity of seawater is accordingly 1.3 x 10'* cubic meters. 

 if we take the amount of free and loose carbonic acid at the 

 tension of the atmosphere, 0.03 %, to be 50 mgrs. per 1. we 

 arrive at the enormous total of 6.55 x 10'^ tons, or 27 times the 

 quantity of atmospheric carbonic acid^). 



If the C02-tension of the atmosphere is diminished or 



^) Th. Schloesing : Sur la constance de la proportion d'acide carbonique 

 dans l'air. Compt. rend. T. 90, 1880 p. 1410. 



*) DiTTMAK puts (in Encycl. Bru.) the average depth of the sea at 2000 

 fathoms and its total mass at 1.322 X 10" tons. The total quantity of 

 carbonate, calculated as normal carbonate of lime, is, according to 

 DiTTMAR, 1.6xl0"tons and from these figures I calculate the amount 

 of free and loose carbonic acid (85 °/o of the fixed quantity) to be 

 5.98 X 10*Mons. 



