LAND LOSS AT THE EXTREMITIES
Don't they see how We come to the land eroding it at its extremities?... (Qur'an, 13:41)
... Don't they see how We come to the land eroding it from its extremities?... (Qur'an, 21:44)
The Earth is bombarded by proton, electron and alpha particles from the Sun. These solar winds are powerful enough to separate the atmosphere from the Earth. However, it will take about five times longer than the total life of the Sun at the Earth's present rate of matter loss (at most 3 kg [6.6 lbs] per second) for the atmosphere to be used up. ("Press Release," Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF), March 9, 2001) That is because, thanks to the powerful magnetic field formed by the magnetosphere in the atmosphere, the Earth is to some extent protected from this powerful erosion. The loss of ions-oxygen, helium and hydrogen-dispersed over the Earth's ionosphere layer into the depths of space is of much smaller dimensions than the vast layer of air surrounding the Earth. Even so, the amount leaking into space is nevertheless of a significant size. ("Solar Wind Blows Some of Earth's Atmosphere into Space," NASA)