What would happen if earth's atmospheric pressure was halved?

Question

Just curious. lol.

Answer 1

Millions of people would die. To have the half of pressure is like to live at 4000 meters over the sea level. The people living in mountains (Bolivia, Tibet) will suffer asphyxia as like they will be at 8000 meters!. The greenhouse effect will be lowered, so the world temperatures be lowered too, like (or more than) a new glacial era. Many animal and plant species disappear, like when the extinction of the dinosaurs. As I don't know the new Earth temperature, I wouldn't know if the mankind disappear too.

Answer 2

I think atmospheric pressure is cause by gravity pulling on air, so halved air pressure would mean halved gravity, so people would float and suffocate on thin air. This also means that the Earth's atmosphere is not as thick, so the atmospheric layers would get smaller or disappear. Sea levels would rise because there is not as much air pushing down on the water. Low-lying countries or places would drown, for example netherlands and new orleans. Clouds would get sucked into outer space. It would be sunny almost every day, the ozone layer would be thinner, therefore people will have cancer every minute. Meteors don't burn up completely in the atmosphere because there is less of the atmosphere to get burned up in. As a result, we would be stricken my tiny little rocks coming from outer space on a daily basis.

Answer 3

Basically, everyone would be short of breath and water would boil at a much lower temperature. When the air is thinner, it's harder to breathe; that's why people become out of breath at high altitudes, where the atmospheric pressure is lower. And pressure tends to prevent substances from turning from liquid to gas; that's why liquids tend to vaporize in a vacuum.

The exact effects would depend on why exactly atmospheric pressure was halved. Is it because the force of gravity has been halved, causing the air to weigh less? If so, we'd also be walking around with quite a spring in our steps. Is it because the upper 50% of the atmosphere's height has been sucked away? If so, it would remove some of the planet's protection from meteoroids and we would start to have more and larger meteorite strikes.

Answer 4

The first effect will be the arteries of all living being , both humen and animal will burst and blood will splash as the blood moves with high pressure and remains balanced with atmospheric pressure. Hence it would be difficult for life to sustain without pressurised astronaut suite.
The water will evaporate and boil at much lower temp.
Trees will grow longer
volcanoes may erupt.
jelly fish will burst
submarines will come up.
I hope you can visualise the catastrophy by my answer.

Answer 5

Life on earth would adapt over several generations by increasing the red blood cells in the body to carry the limited oxygen. This is exactly what has happened to people who live at high altitudes above 10,000'.