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Nitrogen gas (N2) is the most common gas in the Earth's atmosphere, comprising up 78.1% of the Earth's air, by volume. of it

Nitrogen occurs naturally in many minerals, such as saltpetre (potassium nitrate), Chile saltpetre (sodium nitrate) and sal ammoniac (ammonium chloride). Most of these are uncommon, partly because of the minerals' ready solubility in water

For thousands of years, humans had little impact on the nitrogen cycle. The strong bond found in nitrogen gas prevented its simple conversion to other, much more useful, nitrogen compounds. People were therefore entirely dependent upon bacteria for the initial nitrogen fixation. Once fixed in the cycle, nitrogen compounds could be collected.

One of the best, and largest, sources of this fixed nitrogen was found in Chile.

This outcrop was due to a vast number of sea birds which nested, and went to the bathroom, along its coasts.

Over thousands of years these "natural" deposits called "Guano" accumulated and became several feet thick. A huge industry developed to supply this Chilean saltpeter to the rest of the world.

but as military leaders fears that those not having access to Chilean supply will run out of ammunition as Germany is the case so two German scientist developed Haber process to produce it synthetically.

They had discovered that ammonia could be made by placing nitrogen gas and hydrogen gas in a high pressure chamber. With the addition of a suitable catalyst, and a little heat to speed things up, vast quantities of fixed nitrogen could be produced. Without the Haber-Bosch Process, Germany would have run out of munitions in 1916 thereby ending the war.

So naturally one can still found nitrogen compounds as salt peters in geographically dried areas as Chile and Germany have the largest of those sites with Chile leading the pack.

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