History of Earth the third atmosphere, rich in oxygen, emerged when bacteria began to produce oxygen about 2.8 Ga. In early models for the formation of the atmosphere and ocean, the second atmosphere was formed by outgassing of volatiles from the Earth's interior. Now it is considered likely that many of the volatiles were delivered during accretion by a process known as "impact degassing" in which incoming bodies vaporize on impact. The ocean and atmosphere would, therefore, have started to form even as the Earth formed. The new atmosphere probably contained water vapor, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and smaller amounts of other gases. Planetesimals
Atmosphere of Earth average sea level pressure and Earth's area of 51007.2 megahectares, this portion being displaced by Earth's mountainous terrain. Atmospheric pressure is the total weight of the air above unit area at the point where the pressure is measured. Thus air pressure varies with location and weather. If the entire mass of the atmosphere had a uniform density from sea level, it would terminate abruptly at an altitude of . It actually decreases exponentially with altitude, dropping by half every or by a factor of 1/e every , the average scale height of the atmosphere below . However, the atmosphere is