Re: Atmospheric O2

[GREGORY LEE SMITH <glsmit02@morehead-st.edu>]

On Mon, 11 Sep 1995, Neil Clark wrote:

> > From: "Kay A Ferrari" <Kay.A.Ferrari@jpl.nasa.gov>
> 
> >  During the conversation, they mentioned that oxygen 
> > levels in the Mesozoic atmosphere fluctuated significantly, sometimes 
> > getting 
> > up as high as 35 percent.  This information, Kevin said, was gathered by 
> > analyzing air pockets in amber from different time periods.
> 
> I would have thought that amber was a particularly poor source to 
> study atmospheric oxygen as even H2O seem to diffuse through the 
> structure to a certain extent - most of the insects appear to be 
> dessicated..... or am I wrong?
> 
> Neil
> 
I agree, it seems to me like a percentage of the oxygen would diffuse 
from the amber.  I don't think there could be any reliable source to 
study the oxygen content of the past.