Greenhouses and magma oceans

Abstract

The present drought in North America has been attributed by some to the greenhouse effect of increased atmospheric CO_2 but a recent minor flood of papers address the question of a primordial water-vapour greenhouse, its implications for the differences between Earth and Venus and whether the Earth was once mostly or completely molten. Jim Kasting of NASA Ames, both independently and jointly with his colleagues now clarifies some of the important issues in this contentious area, some of which date back 20 years to the original idea of Ingersoll.

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