Question

Arizona was the site of a 400,000-acre wildfire in June 2002. How much carbon dioxide (CO2) was produced into the atmosphere by that fire? [Hints: Assume that the density of carbon on the acreage was 10 kg/m2 and that 50% of the biomass burned. In addition, 10,000 m2 = 2.47 acre].

Answer 1

Answer:

2.97 × 10¹³ g

Explanation:

First, we have to calculate the biomass the is burned. We can establish the following relations:

• 2.47 acre = 10,000 m²
• 10 kg of C occupy an area of 1 m²
• 50% of the biomass is burned

The biomass burned in the site of 400,000 acre is:

$400,000acre\times\frac{10,000m^{2} }{2.47acre} \times \frac{10kgC}{m^{2} } \times 50\% = 8.10 \times 10^{9} kgC$

Let's consider the combustion of carbon.

C(s) + O₂(g) ⇒ CO₂(g)

We can establish the following relations:

• The molar mass of C is 12.01 g/mol
• 1 mole of C produces 1 mole of CO₂
• The molar mass of CO₂ is 44.01 g/mol

The mass of  produced is CO₂:

$8.10 \times 10^{12}gC \times \frac{1molC}{12.01gC} \times \frac{1molCO_{2}}{1molC} \times \frac{44.01gCO_{2}}{1molCO_{2}} =2.97 \times 10^{13} gCO_{2}$