SP-345 Evolution of the Solar
System
FIGURE 26.3.1.- The dashed curve and
the left-hand ordinate show the thermal power (in arbitrary units)
delivered per unit surface area of the growing Earth by impacting
planetesimals (ch. 12).
The lower abscissa shows the radius of the growing Earth in fractions
of the present radius. The upper (nonlinear) abscissa scale shows the
time elapsed from inception of accretion. The three solid curves show
the accumulation of water on Earth. The left curve represents the
amount retained in the cooly accreted inner core (arbitrary units).
The middle curve shows the accumulated water in the atmosphere and
the right-hand curve shows the accumulated liquid water; both in
units of 1023 g. The final mass of accumulated water has been
adjusted to equal the present ocean mass. (From Arrhenius et al.,
1974.)
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