DOCSLIB.ORG

Weak Tides During Cryogenian Glaciations ✉ J

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Weak Tides During Cryogenian Glaciations ✉ J ARTICLE https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20008-3 OPEN Weak tides during Cryogenian glaciations ✉ J. A. Mattias Green 1 , Hannah S. Davies2,3, Joao C. Duarte 2,3,4, Jessica R. Creveling5 & Christopher Scotese6 The severe “Snowball Earth” glaciations proposed to have existed during the Cryogenian period (720 to 635 million years ago) coincided with the breakup of one supercontinent and assembly of another. Whereas the presence of extensive continental ice sheets predicts a tidally energetic Snowball ocean due to the reduced ocean depth, the supercontinent 1234567890():,; palaeogeography predicts weak tides because the surrounding ocean is too large to host tidal resonances. Here we show, using an established numerical global tidal model and paleo- geographic reconstructions, that the Cryogenian ocean hosted diminished tidal amplitudes and associated energy dissipation rates, reaching 10–50% of today’s rates, during the Snowball glaciations. We argue that the near-absence of Cryogenian tidal processes may have been one contributor to the prolonged glaciations if these were near-global. These results also constrain lunar distance and orbital evolution throughout the Cryogenian, and highlight that simulations of past oceans should include explicit tidally driven mixing processes. 1 School of Ocean Sciences, Bangor University, Menai Bridge, UK. 2 Instituto Dom Luiz (IDL), Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal. 3 Departamento de Geologia, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal. 4 School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia. 5 College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA. 6 Earth and ✉ Planetary Sciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA. email: [email protected] NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | (2020) 11:6227 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20008-3 | www.nature.com/naturecommunications 1 ARTICLE NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20008-3 t has been suggested that the Earth experienced near-global Tides are known to fluctuate on geological time scales16,17 due severe glaciations during the Cryogenian period (720–635 to changes in the basin geometries induced by the motion of the I “ ’ 18,19 fi Ma), events which earned the nickname Snowball Earth s tectonic plates . The main mechanism for ampli ca- Earth”1,2. The earliest Cryogenian glaciation proposed, the tion of the tides is tidal resonance, which occurs when the size of Sturtian from 717–660 Ma1–3, and the younger Marinoan a basin is equal to half a wave length of the tidal wave20,21. glaciation, from 650–635 Ma1,3, had continental ice advance Because of movements of the tectonic plates, we can therefore down to very low latitudes4, possibly leaving an open equa- expect the tides to change on scales of millions of years. Also, torial ocean (the latter known as a “Slushball Earth”5). A because the wavelength is set by the tidal period (here taken to be Snowball state is climatologically stable, with the predicted 10.98 h throughout the period under investigation22,23—see our duration of long-lived glaciation commensurate with the time methods for more details) and the speed of the wave, which in for volcanic outgassing of greenhouse gases to reach a turn is set by the water depth, large-scale variations in depth due threshold for deglaciation1,6–8, leading to abrupt warming and to the appearance of ice can also move a basin towards, or away hothouse conditions after the glaciations7,9.Herewepropose from, resonance on scales shorter than those of tectonic motions. that a second factor, ocean tides, influenced the duration of Here, we aim to quantify Cryogenian tidal energetics by Cryogenian Snowball glaciations. Coupled ice flow–ocean cir- simulating the evolution of the global tides using 20 recent paleo- culation models10,11 suggest that there was only a single vig- geographic reconstructions covering 750–500 Ma18 in a numer- orous meridional overturning circulation cell, and hence ical tidal model17 (see Methods for details and sensitivity simu- stratification, near the equator in the Snowball ocean. The rest lations). We discuss how Cryogenian tidal amplitude and of the ocean was most likely vertically mixed or only very dissipation was affected by and could have contributed to the weakly stratified because of strong convective overturns from onset and termination of Snowball glaciation, and wider impli- geothermal heating11,12. If tidal dissipation, i.e., the loss of tidal cations of the tidal results. The investigation covers the late energy due to boundary friction and tidal conversion (the Neoproterozoic, including the Cryogenian, and spans 750–600 generation of internal tidal waves), was then added to the Ma. We model a Sturtian and Marinoan glaciation duration from background flow, the stratification could break down further13. 715–660 Ma and 650–635 Ma, respectively. This scenario predicts negligible tidal conversion (i.e., the generation of an internal tide), and tidal dissipation would be Results limited to the frictional boundary layer near the sea floor and Tidal amplitudes. The numerical simulations predict global underneath the ice. It has been suggested that tides in the mean M2 tidal amplitudes of ~0.2 m prior to the onset of the vicinity of the Laurentide ice sheet during the last deglaciation Sturtian glaciation (Figs. 1 and 2a, and Supplementary Fig. 1; note probably contributed to its rapid collapse14.Themeltratein that the tidal range is twice the amplitude). At 715 Ma, model cavities under the ice shelf in present day Antarctica is largely glacial tidal amplitudes rapidly increase to 0.44 m, higher than controlled by tidally driven mixing, because mixing stirs the present-day tidal amplitudes (Fig. 2), due to sea-level fall below cold and fresh meltwater under the ice down into the water the continental shelf. This allows a tidal resonance to develop, column, thus allowing saltier and warmer water to be brought much like the enhanced resonance during the Last Glacial into contact with the ice15. Breaking down the saline stratifi- Maximum21,24. The tidal amplitude in the simulations then cation in the ice-ocean boundary layer is a key process that will decreases during the next 25 Ma due to a tectonic configuration happen even if the rest of the ocean is only weakly stratified. that was unable to host a large tide because the basins were too Thus, weak tides would reduce under-ice mixing rates, which large to be near resonance for the semidiurnal tide21,25–27. The could prolong the duration of a Snowball glaciation, with far- model suggests that at 680 Ma, the tide became more energetic reaching consequences for the Earth system. again because the tectonic emergence of land over the South Pole 750 Ma 715 Ma 680 Ma 660 Ma 655 Ma 650 Ma 635 Ma 630 Ma 600 Ma 0 0.5 1 1.5 M2 amplitude [m] Fig. 1 Simulated M2 tidal amplitudes in metres for the time slices representing 750, 715, 680, 660, 655, 650, 635, 630 and 600 Ma (see labels in the top left hand corner of each panel; note that all global maps are plotted on a Mollweide projection). Note that the colour scale saturates at 1.5 m, in a grey-green colour, for clarity. The grey arrow at 630 Ma point to the coastline where the Elatina formation31 is now located. The formation gives a tidal proxy showing a range consistent with the one presented from the model. 2 NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | (2020) 11:6227 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20008-3 | www.nature.com/naturecommunications NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20008-3 ARTICLE a 0.4 0.3 amplitude (m) 2 0.2 0.1 Sturtain Marinoan Global M 0 750 700 650 600 Interglacial Glacial Marinoan Glacial & IT Interglacial no IT Slush 2.5 b Present Day 2 1.5 1 0.5 Global dissipation (TW) 0 750 700 650 600 Time (Ma) Fig. 2 The evolution of globally averaged tidal parameters during the Cryogenian. Globally averaged M2 amplitudes (a) and integrated dissipation rates (b) throughout the period under consideration. The black solid line is the result from the set of simulations with conversion and no sea level change during interglacial periods (red dots), and a 500 m lowstand, no conversion, and increased bed friction during the glacial periods (blue dots). The x-symbols mark sensitivity simulations at the onset and end of glacial periods, in which non-glacial conditions were used, and the plus signs (+) mark simulations during interglacial periods without tidal conversion. The blue dashed line with circle markers shows the results for the Slushball with an ice-free band within 10o from the equator. The horizontal black dotted lines mark present day values and the blue shaded areas mark the spans of the two glaciations. and a convergence of the main continental landmasses in the driven processes. A key feature, however, is the very sharp rise in southern hemisphere changed the geometry of the large super- the dissipation rates at the end of the Marinoan; over 5 Myr the ocean basin to a size that was closer to that required for tidal tidal dissipation rate increases from 0.2 to 1.4 TW. Deglacial ice resonance. Another decrease in tidal amplitude would have melt thus had important effects on the tides as ocean circulation occurred through ~660 Ma because the continental configuration and tidally driven mixing recovered. As the reconstructed con- would only have allowed for small tidal amplitudes. The tide at tinental configuration changed minimally between 635 and 630 655 Ma, however, is slightly elevated in the model because the Ma, the change in tidal amplitude and dissipation in the model continental configuration allowed for a large tide between the arises from the parametrization of the ice sheets (i.e., the lowstand glaciations.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Formation of Most of Our Coal Brought Earth Close to Global Glaciation
    Formation of most of our coal brought Earth close to global glaciation Georg Feulnera,1 aPotsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Leibniz Association, D–14473 Potsdam, Germany Edited by Mark H. Thiemens, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, and approved September 5, 2017 (received for review July 7, 2017) The bulk of Earth’s coal deposits used as fossil fuel today was period (297–298 Ma), even lower values (19) of 100 ± 80 ppm formed from plant debris during the late Carboniferous and early are reached, coinciding with a maximum of the late-Palaeozoic Permian periods. The high burial rate of organic carbon corre- glaciations (14). Despite this evidence for orbital variations and lates with a significant drawdown of atmospheric carbon dioxide very low CO2 concentrations, the sensitivity of the climate dur- (CO2) at that time. A recent analysis of a high-resolution record ing the latest Carboniferous and earliest Permian to changes in reveals large orbitally driven variations in atmospheric CO2 con- orbital parameters and atmospheric CO2 has never been sys- centration between ∼150 and 700 ppm for the latest Carbonifer- tematically investigated. Earlier modeling efforts for the late- ous and very low values of 100 ± 80 ppm for the earliest Permian. Palaeozoic have primarily focused on ice-sheet growth (20–23) Here, I explore the sensitivity of the climate around the Carbonif- or precipitation patterns (24, 25). erous/Permian boundary to changes in Earth’s orbital parameters Here, I use a coupled climate model (26)—consisting of and in atmospheric CO2 using a coupled climate model.
    [Show full text]
  • 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.
    [Show full text]
  • 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.
    [Show full text]
  • 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.
    [Show full text]
  • 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
    [Show full text]
  • 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.
    [Show full text]
  • 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.
    [Show full text]
  • 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.
    [Show full text]
  • 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).
    [Show full text]
  • 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).
    [Show full text]
  • Dust Aerosol Important for Snowball Earth Deglaciation
    1AUGUST 2010 A B B O T A N D H A L E V Y 4121 Dust Aerosol Important for Snowball Earth Deglaciation DORIAN S. ABBOT Department of Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois ITAY HALEVY Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts (Manuscript received 11 August 2009, in final form 28 December 2009) ABSTRACT Most previous global climate model simulations could only produce the termination of Snowball Earth episodes at CO2 partial pressures of several tenths of a bar, which is roughly an order of magnitude higher than recent estimates of CO2 levels during and shortly after Snowball events. These simulations have neglected the impact of dust aerosols on radiative transfer, which is an assumption of potentially grave importance. In this paper it is argued, using the Dust Entrainment and Deposition (DEAD) box model driven by GCM results, that atmospheric dust aerosol concentrations may have been one to two orders of magnitude higher during a Snowball Earth event than today. It is furthermore asserted on the basis of calculations using NCAR’s Single Column Atmospheric Model (SCAM)—a radiative–convective model with sophisticated aerosol, cloud, and radiative parameterizations—that when the surface albedo is high, such increases in dust aerosol loading 24 can produce several times more surface warming than an increase in the partial pressure of CO2 from 10 to 1021 bar. Therefore the conclusion is reached that including dust aerosols in simulations may reconcile the CO2 levels required for Snowball termination in climate models with observations. 1. Introduction successions that are otherwise siliciclastic (Hoffman and Li 2009).
    [Show full text]
  • Nicholas L. Swanson-Hysell
    Nicholas L. Swanson-Hysell Address: Department of Earth and Planetary Science University of California, Berkeley Curriculum Vitae Berkeley, CA 94720, USA Phone: (510) 542-4787 Email: [email protected] March 2020 www: swanson-hysell.org Academic Appointments Assistant Professor, Department of Earth & Planetary Science 2013 – present University of California, Berkeley NSF Earth Sciences Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute for Rock Magnetism 2012 – 2013 University of Minnesota Visiting Assistant Professor, Geology Department Carleton College 2011 Education Ph.D., Geosciences, Princeton University 2011 B.A., Geology, Carleton College, magna cum laude 2005 Honors and Awards 2020 Noyce Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching 2019 NSF CAREER Award 2016 Geological Society of America Exceptional Reviewer for Lithosphere 2015 Hellman Fellow 2014 William Gilbert Award (Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism Section, American Geo- physical Union) 2014 American Geophysical Union Editors’ Citation for Excellence in Refereeing for Geo- physical Research Letters 2010 Harold W. Dodds Honorific Fellowship (Princeton University) 2009 Arnold Guyot Teaching Award (Princeton University) Publications in peer-reviewed journals and books (* indicates mentored student or post-doc) PDFs of these papers are available here: http://tiny.cc/Swanson-Hysell_pubs 44. Swanson-Hysell, N.L. (in revision), The Paleogeography of Laurentia for book: Ancient Supercontinents and the Paleogeography of the Earth. 43. Park, Y.*, Swanson-Hysell, N.L., Macdonald, F.M., and Lisiecki, L. (accepted; in press), Evaluating the relationship between the area and latitude of large igneous provinces and Earths long-term climate state AGU Book: Environmental Change and Large Igneous Provinces. Preprint available on EarthArXiv: 10.31223/osf.io/p9ndf. 42. Slotznick, S.P.*, Sperling, E.A., Tosca, N.J., Miller, A.J., Clayton, K., van Helmond, N.A.G.M., Slomps, C.P., and Swanson-Hysell, N.L.
    [Show full text]