outgassing

outgassing

1. present participle and gerund of outgas

outgassing (countable and uncountable, plural outgassings)

1. The slow release of gas from a solid or liquid; especially, the release of gases into the atmosphere of a planet, or the release of gases from plastic parts.

   A major component of new-car smell is outgassing by plastic interior parts.

   • 2012, Caspar Henderson, The Book of Barely Imagined Beings, page 233:

     A sudden out-gassing of methane from the seabed sends up a giant bubble that lowers water density at the sea surface so much that a ship is no longer buoyant and sinks like a stone down a mineshaft.

   • 2010, BioWare, Mass Effect 2 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Zeona, Elysta System:

     Zeona has a thin atmosphere of sulfur dioxide and trioxide, created by volcanic outgassing. There are traces of water vapor in the atmosphere, but over the last five centuries of observation particle counts have decreased 4%.

• gassing out