Nitrogen compounds terrestrial systems

One reason soils form is because of the endless migration of ions, molecules, and particles into the soil from meteoric inputs. Examples of meteoric inputs include H2O, CO2, O2, nitrogenous compounds, pollutants, salts, and dust. These molecules and compounds come from space, from the atmosphere and the oceans, and from other terrestrial systems. 

It is generally believed that the solar system condensed out of an interstellar cloud of gas and dust, referred to as the primordial solar nebula, about 4.6 billion years ago. The atmospheres of the Earth and the other terrestrial planets, Venus and Mars, are thought to have formed as a result of the release of trapped volatile compounds from the planet itself. The early atmosphere of the Earth is believed to have been a mixture of carbon dioxide (C02), nitrogen (N2), and water vapor (H20), with trace amounts of hydrogen (H2), a mixture similar to that emitted by present-day volcanoes. 

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