What are some geographical places where nitrogen are found?
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.