Snowball Earth
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The Huronian Glaciation
Brasier, A.T., Martin, A.P., Melezhik, V.A., Prave, A.R., Condon, D.J., and Fallick, A.E. (2013) Earth's earliest global glaciation? Carbonate geochemistry and geochronology of the Polisarka Sedimentary Formation, Kola Peninsula, Russia. Precambrian Research, 235 . pp. 278-294. ISSN 0301-9268 Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge Content must not be changed in any way or reproduced in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holder(s) When referring to this work, full bibliographic details must be given http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/84700 Deposited on: 29 August 2013 Enlighten – Research publications by members of the University of Glasgow http://eprints.gla.ac.uk 1 Earth’s earliest global glaciation? Carbonate geochemistry and geochronology of the 2 Polisarka Sedimentary Formation, Kola Peninsula, Russia 3 4 A.T. Brasier1,6*, A.P. Martin2+, V.A. Melezhik3,4, A.R. Prave5, D.J. Condon2, A.E. Fallick6 and 5 FAR-DEEP Scientists 6 7 1 Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1085, 1081HV 8 Amsterdam 9 2 NERC Isotope Geosciences Laboratory, British Geological Survey, Environmental Science 10 Centre, Keyworth, UK. NG12 5GG 11 3 Geological Survey of Norway, Postboks 6315 Slupen, NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway 12 4 Centre for Geobiology, University of Bergen, Postboks 7803, NO-5020 Bergen, Norway 13 5 Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY16 14 9AL, Scotland, UK 15 6 Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre, Rankine Avenue, East Kilbride, Scotland. -
Timeline of Natural History
Timeline of natural history This timeline of natural history summarizes significant geological and Life timeline Ice Ages biological events from the formation of the 0 — Primates Quater nary Flowers ←Earliest apes Earth to the arrival of modern humans. P Birds h Mammals – Plants Dinosaurs Times are listed in millions of years, or Karo o a n ← Andean Tetrapoda megaanni (Ma). -50 0 — e Arthropods Molluscs r ←Cambrian explosion o ← Cryoge nian Ediacara biota – z ←Earliest animals o ←Earliest plants i Multicellular -1000 — c Contents life ←Sexual reproduction Dating of the Geologic record – P r The earliest Solar System -1500 — o t Precambrian Supereon – e r Eukaryotes Hadean Eon o -2000 — z o Archean Eon i Huron ian – c Eoarchean Era ←Oxygen crisis Paleoarchean Era -2500 — ←Atmospheric oxygen Mesoarchean Era – Photosynthesis Neoarchean Era Pong ola Proterozoic Eon -3000 — A r Paleoproterozoic Era c – h Siderian Period e a Rhyacian Period -3500 — n ←Earliest oxygen Orosirian Period Single-celled – life Statherian Period -4000 — ←Earliest life Mesoproterozoic Era H Calymmian Period a water – d e Ectasian Period a ←Earliest water Stenian Period -4500 — n ←Earth (−4540) (million years ago) Clickable Neoproterozoic Era ( Tonian Period Cryogenian Period Ediacaran Period Phanerozoic Eon Paleozoic Era Cambrian Period Ordovician Period Silurian Period Devonian Period Carboniferous Period Permian Period Mesozoic Era Triassic Period Jurassic Period Cretaceous Period Cenozoic Era Paleogene Period Neogene Period Quaternary Period Etymology of period names References See also External links Dating of the Geologic record The Geologic record is the strata (layers) of rock in the planet's crust and the science of geology is much concerned with the age and origin of all rocks to determine the history and formation of Earth and to understand the forces that have acted upon it. -
During Neoproterozoic Glaciations with Evolutionary Implications
Geosciences 2012, 2, 90-108; doi:10.3390/geosciences2020090 OPEN ACCESS geosciences ISSN 2076-3263 www.mdpi.com/journal/geosciences Review The Location and Styles of Ice-Free “Oases” during Neoproterozoic Glaciations with Evolutionary Implications Daniel Paul Le Heron Department of Earth Sciences, Royal Holloway University of London, Queen’s Building, Egham TW200EX, UK; E-Mail: [email protected]; Tel.: +0044-1784-443615; Fax: +0044-1784-471780 Received: 13 March 2012; in revised form: 10 April 2012 / Accepted: 17 May 2012 / Published: 29 May 2012 Abstract: Evidence based on molecular clocks, together with molecular evidence/biomarkers and putative body fossils, points to major evolutionary events prior to and during the intense Cryogenian and Ediacaran glaciations. The glaciations themselves were of global extent. Sedimentological evidence, including hummocky cross-stratification (representing ice-free seas affected by intra-glacial storms), dropstone textures, microbial mat-bearing ironstones, ladderback ripples, and wave ripples, militates against a “hard” Snowball Earth event. Each piece of sedimentological evidence potentially allows insight into the shape and location, with respect to the shoreline, of ice-free areas (“oases”) that may be viewed as potential refugia. The location of such oases must be seen in the context of global paleogeography, and it is emphasized that continental reconstructions at 600 Ma (about 35 millions years after the “Marinoan” ice age) are non-unique solutions. Specifically, whether continents such as greater India, Australia/East Antarctica, Kalahari, South and North China, and Siberia, were welded to a southern supercontinent or not, has implications for island speciation, faunal exchange, and the development of endemism. -
Neoproterozoic to Cambrian Palaeoclimatic Events in Southwestern Gondwana$
CHAPTER 11.1 Neoproterozoic to Cambrian Palaeoclimatic Events in Southwestern Gondwana$ A.J. Kaufman1, A.N. Sial2, H.E. Frimmel3 and A. Misi4 Contents 11.1.1. Constructing a Global Record of Neoproterozoic Palaeoclimatic Variations 369 11.1.2. Age Constraints for Cryogenian Glacial Deposits in Southwestern Gondwana 371 11.1.2.1. Sturtian 371 11.1.2.2. Marinoan 372 11.1.2.3. Gaskiers 372 11.1.3. Chemostratigraphic Records of Palaeoclimatic Events in Southwestern Gondwana 373 11.1.3.1. Carbon isotopes 373 11.1.3.2. Strontium isotopes 373 11.1.3.3. Isotopic observations of pre-Sturtian (?) ice ages in southwestern Gondwana 374 11.1.3.4. Lithologic and isotopic observations of Sturtian ice ages in southwestern Gondwana 376 11.1.3.5. Lithologic and isotopic observations of Marinoan ice ages in southwestern Gondwana 377 11.1.3.6. Lithologic and isotopic observations of Gaskiers ice ages in southwestern Gondwana 381 11.1.3.7. Palaeoclimatic change at the Ediacaran-Cambrian boundary and beyond 382 11.1.4. A Synthesis of the Palaeoclimatic Puzzle from Southwestern Gondwana 383 11.1.4.1. The Hu¨ttenberg positive carbon isotope anomaly 383 11.1.4.2. Strontium isotope correlations of cap carbonates in southwestern Gondwana 386 11.1.5. Conclusions 388 Acknowledgements 388 11.1.1. Constructing a Global Record of Neoproterozoic Palaeoclimatic Variations Since publication of the ‘Snowball Earth’ hypothesis 2 initially by Kirschvink (1992a) based on an apparently robust equatorial palaeolatitude for glacial strata in the Neoproterozoic Elatina Formation of Australia, and later by Hoffman et al. -
Neoproterozoic Glaciations in a Revised Global Palaeogeography from the Breakup of Rodinia to the Assembly of Gondwanaland
Sedimentary Geology 294 (2013) 219–232 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Sedimentary Geology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/sedgeo Invited review Neoproterozoic glaciations in a revised global palaeogeography from the breakup of Rodinia to the assembly of Gondwanaland Zheng-Xiang Li a,b,⁎, David A.D. Evans b, Galen P. Halverson c,d a ARC Centre of Excellence for Core to Crust Fluid Systems (CCFS) and The Institute for Geoscience Research (TIGeR), Department of Applied Geology, Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Perth, WA 6845, Australia b Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8109, USA c Earth & Planetary Sciences/GEOTOP, McGill University, 3450 University St., Montreal, Quebec H3A0E8, Canada d Tectonics, Resources and Exploration (TRaX), School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia article info abstract Article history: This review paper presents a set of revised global palaeogeographic maps for the 825–540 Ma interval using Received 6 January 2013 the latest palaeomagnetic data, along with lithological information for Neoproterozoic sedimentary basins. Received in revised form 24 May 2013 These maps form the basis for an examination of the relationships between known glacial deposits, Accepted 28 May 2013 palaeolatitude, positions of continental rifting, relative sea-level changes, and major global tectonic events Available online 5 June 2013 such as supercontinent assembly, breakup and superplume events. This analysis reveals several fundamental ’ Editor: J. Knight palaeogeographic features that will help inform and constrain models for Earth s climatic and geodynamic evolution during the Neoproterozoic. First, glacial deposits at or near sea level appear to extend from high Keywords: latitudes into the deep tropics for all three Neoproterozoic ice ages (Sturtian, Marinoan and Gaskiers), al- Neoproterozoic though the Gaskiers interval remains very poorly constrained in both palaeomagnetic data and global Rodinia lithostratigraphic correlations. -
A Community Effort Towards an Improved Geological Time Scale
A community effort towards an improved geological time scale 1 This manuscript is a preprint of a paper that was submitted for publication in Journal 2 of the Geological Society. Please note that the manuscript is now formally accepted 3 for publication in JGS and has the doi number: 4 5 https://doi.org/10.1144/jgs2020-222 6 7 The final version of this manuscript will be available via the ‘Peer reviewed Publication 8 DOI’ link on the right-hand side of this webpage. Please feel free to contact any of the 9 authors. We welcome feedback on this community effort to produce a framework for 10 future rock record-based subdivision of the pre-Cryogenian geological timescale. 11 1 A community effort towards an improved geological time scale 12 Towards a new geological time scale: A template for improved rock-based subdivision of 13 pre-Cryogenian time 14 15 Graham A. Shields1*, Robin A. Strachan2, Susannah M. Porter3, Galen P. Halverson4, Francis A. 16 Macdonald3, Kenneth A. Plumb5, Carlos J. de Alvarenga6, Dhiraj M. Banerjee7, Andrey Bekker8, 17 Wouter Bleeker9, Alexander Brasier10, Partha P. Chakraborty7, Alan S. Collins11, Kent Condie12, 18 Kaushik Das13, Evans, D.A.D.14, Richard Ernst15, Anthony E. Fallick16, Hartwig Frimmel17, Reinhardt 19 Fuck6, Paul F. Hoffman18, Balz S. Kamber19, Anton Kuznetsov20, Ross Mitchell21, Daniel G. Poiré22, 20 Simon W. Poulton23, Robert Riding24, Mukund Sharma25, Craig Storey2, Eva Stueeken26, Rosalie 21 Tostevin27, Elizabeth Turner28, Shuhai Xiao29, Shuanhong Zhang30, Ying Zhou1, Maoyan Zhu31 22 23 1Department -
The History of Ice on Earth by Michael Marshall
The history of ice on Earth By Michael Marshall Primitive humans, clad in animal skins, trekking across vast expanses of ice in a desperate search to find food. That’s the image that comes to mind when most of us think about an ice age. But in fact there have been many ice ages, most of them long before humans made their first appearance. And the familiar picture of an ice age is of a comparatively mild one: others were so severe that the entire Earth froze over, for tens or even hundreds of millions of years. In fact, the planet seems to have three main settings: “greenhouse”, when tropical temperatures extend to the polesand there are no ice sheets at all; “icehouse”, when there is some permanent ice, although its extent varies greatly; and “snowball”, in which the planet’s entire surface is frozen over. Why the ice periodically advances – and why it retreats again – is a mystery that glaciologists have only just started to unravel. Here’s our recap of all the back and forth they’re trying to explain. Snowball Earth 2.4 to 2.1 billion years ago The Huronian glaciation is the oldest ice age we know about. The Earth was just over 2 billion years old, and home only to unicellular life-forms. The early stages of the Huronian, from 2.4 to 2.3 billion years ago, seem to have been particularly severe, with the entire planet frozen over in the first “snowball Earth”. This may have been triggered by a 250-million-year lull in volcanic activity, which would have meant less carbon dioxide being pumped into the atmosphere, and a reduced greenhouse effect. -
The Ice Age in North Hertfordshire
The Ice Age in North Hertfordshire What do we mean by ‘the Ice Age’? Thinking about ‘the Ice Age’ brings up images of tundra, mammoths, Neanderthals and great sheets of ice across the landscape. This simple picture is wrong in many ways. Firstly, there have been many different ‘Ice Ages’ in the history of the earth. The most dramatic happened between 2.4 and 2.1 billion years ago, known as the Huronian Glaciation. About the same time, earth’s atmosphere suddenly became rich in oxygen, and some scientists believe that the atmospheric changes reduced the temperature so much that the whole planet became covered in ice. 1: an Arctic ice sheet (© Youino Joe, USFWS, used under a Creative Commons licence) Another global cover of ice happened 650 million years ago when the first multi-celled animals were evolving. Geologists sometimes refer to this period as the ‘Snowball Earth’ and biologists know it as the Proterozoic. Temperatures were so low that the equator was as cold as present-day Antarctica. They began to rise again as concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere rose to about 13%, 350 times greater than today. Some carbon dioxide came from volcanic eruptions, but some was excreted by microbial life, which was beginning to diversify and increase in numbers. Neither of these Ice Ages is the one that dominates the popular imagination. Both happened many millions of years before life moved on to land. There were no humans, no mammals, no dinosaurs: none of the creatures familiar from The Flintstones. The period most people think about as the ‘real’ Ice Age is the geologists’ Pleistocene era, from more than two-and-a-half million years ago to the beginning of the Holocene, almost 12,000 years ago. -
CO2, Hothouse and Snowball Earth
CO2, Hothouse and Snowball Earth Gareth E. Roberts Department of Mathematics and Computer Science College of the Holy Cross Worcester, MA, USA Mathematical Models MATH 303 Fall 2018 November 12 and 14, 2018 Roberts (Holy Cross) CO2, Hothouse and Snowball Earth Mathematical Models 1 / 42 Lecture Outline The Greenhouse Effect The Keeling Curve and the Earth’s climate history Consequences of Global Warming The long- and short-term carbon cycles and silicate weathering The Snowball Earth hypothesis Roberts (Holy Cross) CO2, Hothouse and Snowball Earth Mathematical Models 2 / 42 Chapter 1 Historical Overview of Climate Change Science Frequently Asked Question 1.3 What is the Greenhouse Effect? The Sun powers Earth’s climate, radiating energy at very short Earth’s natural greenhouse effect makes life as we know it pos- wavelengths, predominately in the visible or near-visible (e.g., ul- sible. However, human activities, primarily the burning of fossil traviolet) part of the spectrum. Roughly one-third of the solar fuels and clearing of forests, have greatly intensifi ed the natural energy that reaches the top of Earth’s atmosphere is refl ected di- greenhouse effect, causing global warming. rectly back to space. The remaining two-thirds is absorbed by the The two most abundant gases in the atmosphere, nitrogen surface and, to a lesser extent, by the atmosphere. To balance the (comprising 78% of the dry atmosphere) and oxygen (comprising absorbed incoming energy, the Earth must, on average, radiate the 21%), exert almost no greenhouse effect. Instead, the greenhouse same amount of energy back to space. Because the Earth is much effect comes from molecules that are more complex and much less colder than the Sun, it radiates at much longer wavelengths, pri- common. -
Timing and Tempo of the Great Oxidation Event
Timing and tempo of the Great Oxidation Event Ashley P. Gumsleya,1, Kevin R. Chamberlainb,c, Wouter Bleekerd, Ulf Söderlunda,e, Michiel O. de Kockf, Emilie R. Larssona, and Andrey Bekkerg,f aDepartment of Geology, Lund University, Lund 223 62, Sweden; bDepartment of Geology and Geophysics, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071; cFaculty of Geology and Geography, Tomsk State University, Tomsk 634050, Russia; dGeological Survey of Canada, Ottawa, ON K1A 0E8, Canada; eDepartment of Geosciences, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm 104 05, Sweden; fDepartment of Geology, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park 2006, South Africa; and gDepartment of Earth Sciences, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521 Edited by Mark H. Thiemens, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, and approved December 27, 2016 (received for review June 11, 2016) The first significant buildup in atmospheric oxygen, the Great situ secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) on microbaddeleyite Oxidation Event (GOE), began in the early Paleoproterozoic in grains coupled with precise isotope dilution thermal ionization association with global glaciations and continued until the end of mass spectrometry (ID-TIMS) and paleomagnetic studies, we re- the Lomagundi carbon isotope excursion ca. 2,060 Ma. The exact solve these uncertainties by obtaining accurate and precise ages timing of and relationships among these events are debated for the volcanic Ongeluk Formation and related intrusions in because of poor age constraints and contradictory stratigraphic South Africa. These ages lead to a more coherent global per- correlations. Here, we show that the first Paleoproterozoic global spective on the timing and tempo of the GOE and associated glaciation and the onset of the GOE occurred between ca. -
The Arc of the Snowball: U-Pb Dates Constrain the Islay Anomaly and the Initiation of the Sturtian Glaciation
The arc of the Snowball: U-Pb dates constrain the Islay anomaly and the initiation of the Sturtian glaciation Scott MacLennan1, Yuem Park2, Nicholas Swanson-Hysell2, Adam Maloof1, Blair Schoene1, Mulubrhan Gebreslassie3, Eliel Antilla2, Tadele Tesema3, Mulugeta Alene3, and Bereket Haileab4 1Department of Geosciences, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA 2Earth and Planetary Sciences Department, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA 3School of Earth Sciences, Addis Ababa University, P.O. Box 1176, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 4Department of Geology, Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota 55057, USA ABSTRACT Models for the mechanisms driving Sturtian Snowball initiation In order to understand the onset of Snowball Earth events, pre- include enhanced organic production and remineralization under anaer- cise geochronology and chemostratigraphy are needed on complete obic conditions (Tziperman et al., 2011), increased CO2 sequestration sections leading into the glaciations. While deposits associated with through weathering of large volumes of mafic extrusions at equatorial lati- the Neoproterozoic Sturtian glaciation have been found on nearly tudes (Goddéris et al., 2003; Macdonald et al., 2010), and sulfate injection every continent, time-calibrated stratigraphic sections that record into the stratosphere caused by equatorial basaltic eruptions (Macdonald paleoenvironmental conditions leading into the glaciation are exceed- and Wordsworth, 2017). Regardless of the initiation mechanism, once ice ingly rare. Instead, the transition to glaciation is normally expressed sheet extent reaches ~30° of latitude, numerical models predict that ice as erosive contacts with overlying diamictites, and the best existing expansion to the equator should occur over thousands of years due to the geochronological constraints come from volcanic successions with ice albedo feedback (Baum and Crowley, 2001). -
Predominantly Ferruginous Conditions in South China During
Article Predominantly Ferruginous Conditions in South China during the Marinoan Glaciation: Insight from REE Geochemistry of the Syn‐glacial Dolostone from the Nantuo Formation in Guizhou Province, China Shangyi Gu 1,*, Yong Fu 1 and Jianxi Long 2 1 College of Resource and Environmental Engineering, Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025, China; [email protected] 2 Guizhou Geological Survey, Bureau of Geology and Mineral Exploration and Development of Guizhou Province, Guiyang 550081, China; with‐[email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +86‐0851‐83627126 Received: 23 April 2019; Accepted: 3 June 2019; Published: 5 June 2019 Abstract: The Neoproterozoic Era witnessed two low‐latitude glaciations, which exerted a fundamental influence on ocean‒atmosphere redox conditions and biogeochemical cycling. Climate models and palaeobiological evidence support the belief that open waters provided oases for life that survived snowball Earth glaciations, yet independent geochemical evidence for marine redox conditions during the Marinoan glaciation remains scarce owing to the apparent lack of primary marine precipitates. In this study, we explore variability in rare earth elements (REEs) and trace metal concentrations in dolostone samples of the Cryogenian Nantuo Formation taken from a drill core in South China. Petrological evidence suggests that the dolostone in the Nantuo Formation was formed in near‐shore waters. All the examined dolostone samples featured significant enrichment of manganese (345‒10,890 ppm, average 3488 ppm) and middle rare earth elements (MREEs) (Bell Shape Index: 1.43‒2.16, average 1.76) after being normalized to Post‐Archean Australian Shale (PAAS). Most dolostone samples showed slight to no negative Ce anomalies (Ce*/Ce 0.53‒1.30, average 0.95), as well as positive Eu anomalies (Eu*/Eu 1.77‒3.28, average 1.95).