Snowball Earthearth

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Snowball Earthearth SnowballSnowball EarthEarth by Paul F. Hoffman and Daniel P. Schrag Ice entombed our planet hundreds of millions of years ago, and complex animals evolved in the greenhouse heat wave that followed ur human ancestors had it rough. Saber-toothed Aside from grinding glaciers and groaning sea ice, the only stir cats and woolly mammoths may have been day- comes from a smattering of volcanoes forcing their hot heads O to-day concerns, but harsh climate was a consum- above the frigid surface. Although it seems the planet might ing long-term challenge. During the past million years, they never wake from its cryogenic slumber, the volcanoes slowly faced one ice age after another. At the height of the last icy manufacture an escape from the chill: carbon dioxide. episode, 20,000 years ago, glaciers more than two kilometers With the chemical cycles that normally consume carbon thick gripped much of North America and Europe. The chill dioxide halted by the frost, the gas accumulates to record lev- delivered ice as far south as New York City. els. The heat-trapping capacity of carbon dioxide—a green- Dramatic as it may seem, this extreme climate change pales house gas—warms the planet and begins to melt the ice. The in comparison to the catastrophic events that some of our ear- thaw takes only a few hundred years, but a new problem liest microscopic ancestors endured around 600 million years arises in the meantime: a brutal greenhouse effect. Any crea- ago. Just before the appearance of recognizable animal life, in tures that survived the icehouse must now endure a hothouse. a time period known as the Neoproterozoic, an ice age pre- As improbable as it may sound, we see clear evidence that vailed with such intensity that even the tropics froze over. this striking climate reversal—the most extreme imaginable Imagine the earth hurtling through space like a cosmic snow- on this planet—happened as many as four times between 750 ball for 10 million years or more. Heat escaping from the million and 580 million years ago. Scientists long presumed molten core prevents the oceans from freezing to the bottom, that the earth’s climate was never so severe; such intense cli- but ice grows a kilometer thick in the –50 degree Celsius cold. mate change has been more widely accepted for other planets All but a tiny fraction of the planet’s primitive organisms die. such as Venus [see “Global Climate Change on Venus,” by 68 Scientific American January 2000 Snowball Earth Copyright 1999 Scientific American, Inc. nc I , isc oD hot y ©1999 P mager igital I D GLEN ALLISON HOFFMAN . Mark A. Bullock and David H. Grinspoon; Scientific UL F A American, March 1999]. Hints of a harsh past on the earth began cropping up in the early 1960s, but we and our col- TESY OF P OUR leagues have found new evidence in the past eight years that C has helped us weave a more explicit tale that is capturing the TOWERS OF ICE like Argentina’s Moreno Glacier (above) attention of geologists, biologists and climatologists alike. once buried the earth’s continents. Clues about this frozen past Thick layers of ancient rock hold the only clues to the cli- have surfaced in layers of barren rock such as these hills near the mate of the Neoproterozoic. For decades, many of those coast of northwest Namibia (inset). clues appeared rife with contradiction. The first paradox was the occurrence of glacial debris near sea level in the tropics. Glaciers near the equator today survive only at 5,000 meters accumulated just after the glaciers receded. If the earth were above sea level or higher, and at the worst of the last ice age ever cold enough to ice over completely, how did it warm up they reached no lower than 4,000 meters. Mixed in with the again? In addition, the carbon isotopic signature in the rocks glacial debris are unusual deposits of iron-rich rock. These hinted at a prolonged drop in biological productivity. What deposits should have been able to form only if the Neopro- could have caused this dramatic loss of life? terozoic oceans and atmosphere contained little or no oxy- Each of these long-standing enigmas suddenly makes sense gen, but by that time the atmosphere had already evolved to when we look at them as key plot developments in the tale of nearly the same mixture of gases as it has today. To confound a “snowball earth.” The theory has garnered cautious sup- matters, rocks known to form in warm water seem to have port in the scientific community since we first introduced the Snowball Earth Scientific American January 2000 69 Copyright 1999 Scientific American, Inc. Realizing that the glaciers must have covered the tropics, Harland became the first geologist to suggest that the earth SOUTH CHINA AUSTRALIA had experienced a great Neoproterozoic SIBERIA ice age [see “The Great Infra-Cambrian KAZAKHSTAN NORTH AMERICA Glaciation,” by W. B. Harland and M.J.S. Rudwick; Scientific American, AFRICA August 1964]. Although some of Har- INDIA land’s contemporaries were skeptical WEST AFRICA about the reliability of the magnetic data, other scientists have since shown EASTERN that Harland’s hunch was correct. But AND SOUTH AMERICA NORTHERN SOUTH AMERICA EUROPE ANTARCTICA no one was able to find an explanation for how glaciers could have survived the HEIDI NOL tropical heat. At the time Harland was announcing EARTH’S LANDMASSES were most likely clustered near the equator during the global glaciations that took place around 600 million years ago. Although the continents have his ideas about Neoproterozoic glaciers, since shifted position, relics of the debris left behind when the ice melted are exposed at physicists were developing the first dozens of points on the present land surface, including what is now Namibia (red dot). mathematical models of the earth’s cli- mate. Mikhail Budyko of the Leningrad Geophysical Observatory found a way idea in the journal Science a year and a outcrops across virtually every continent. to explain tropical glaciers using equa- half ago. If we turn out to be right, the By the early 1960s scientists had begun tions that describe the way solar radia- tale does more than explain the myster- to accept the idea of plate tectonics, tion interacts with the earth’s surface ies of Neoproterozoic climate and chal- which describes how the planet’s thin, and atmosphere to control climate. lenge long-held assumptions about the rocky skin is broken into giant pieces Some geographic surfaces reflect more limits of global change. These extreme that move atop a churning mass of hotter of the sun’s incoming energy than oth- glaciations occurred just before a rapid rock below. Harland suspected that the ers, a quantifiable characteristic known diversification of multicellular life, cul- continents had clustered together near as albedo. White snow reflects the most minating in the so-called Cambrian ex- the equator in the Neoproterozoic, based solar energy and has a high albedo, plosion between 575 and 525 million on the magnetic orientation of tiny min- darker-colored seawater has a low albe- years ago. Ironically, the long periods of eral grains in the glacial rocks. Before do, and land surfaces have intermediate isolation and extreme environments on the rocks hardened, these grains aligned values that depend on the types and dis- a snowball earth would most likely have themselves with the magnetic field and tribution of vegetation. spurred on genetic change and could dipped only slightly relative to horizon- The more radiation the planet reflects, help account for this evolutionary burst. tal because of their position near the the cooler the temperature. With their The search for the surprisingly strong equator. (If they had formed near the high albedo, snow and ice cool the at- evidence for these climatic events has poles, their magnetic orientation would mosphere and thus stabilize their own taken us around the world. Although be nearly vertical.) existence. Budyko knew that this phe- we are now examining Neoproterozoic rocks in Australia, China, the western U.S. and the Arctic islands of Svalbard, we began our investigations in 1992 along the rocky cliffs of Namibia’s Skeleton Coast. In Neoproterozoic times, this region of southwestern Africa was part of a vast, gently subsiding continental shelf located in low south- ern latitudes. There we see evidence of glaciers in rocks formed from deposits of dirt and debris left behind when the ice melted. Rocks dominated by calcium- and mag- nesium-carbonate minerals lie just above the glacial debris and harbor the chemical evidence of the hothouse that followed. After hundreds of millions of G years of burial, these now exposed A SCHR rocks tell the story that scientists first . began to piece together 35 years ago. In 1964 W. Brian Harland of the Uni- versity of Cambridge pointed out that TESY OF DANIEL P OUR glacial deposits dot Neoproterozoic rock C 70 Scientific American January 2000 Snowball Earth Copyright 1999 Scientific American, Inc. nomenon, called the ice-albedo feed- tinuity of life. Also, once the earth had The key to the second problem—re- back, helps modern polar ice sheets to entered a deep freeze, the high albedo versing the runaway freeze—is carbon grow. But his climate simulations also of its icy veneer would have driven sur- dioxide. In a span as short as a human revealed that this feedback can run out face temperatures so low that it seemed lifetime, the amount of carbon dioxide of control. When ice formed at latitudes there would have been no means of es- in the atmosphere can change as plants lower than around 30 degrees north or cape.
Recommended publications
  • 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]
  • 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]
  • A Fundamental Precambrian–Phanerozoic Shift in Earth's Glacial
    Tectonophysics 375 (2003) 353–385 www.elsevier.com/locate/tecto A fundamental Precambrian–Phanerozoic shift in earth’s glacial style? D.A.D. Evans* Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, P.O. Box 208109, 210 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, CT 06520-8109, USA Received 24 May 2002; received in revised form 25 March 2003; accepted 5 June 2003 Abstract It has recently been found that Neoproterozoic glaciogenic sediments were deposited mainly at low paleolatitudes, in marked qualitative contrast to their Pleistocene counterparts. Several competing models vie for explanation of this unusual paleoclimatic record, most notably the high-obliquity hypothesis and varying degrees of the snowball Earth scenario. The present study quantitatively compiles the global distributions of Miocene–Pleistocene glaciogenic deposits and paleomagnetically derived paleolatitudes for Late Devonian–Permian, Ordovician–Silurian, Neoproterozoic, and Paleoproterozoic glaciogenic rocks. Whereas high depositional latitudes dominate all Phanerozoic ice ages, exclusively low paleolatitudes characterize both of the major Precambrian glacial epochs. Transition between these modes occurred within a 100-My interval, precisely coeval with the Neoproterozoic–Cambrian ‘‘explosion’’ of metazoan diversity. Glaciation is much more common since 750 Ma than in the preceding sedimentary record, an observation that cannot be ascribed merely to preservation. These patterns suggest an overall cooling of Earth’s longterm climate, superimposed by developing regulatory feedbacks
    [Show full text]
  • Earth: Atmospheric Evolution of a Habitable Planet
    Earth: Atmospheric Evolution of a Habitable Planet Stephanie L. Olson1,2*, Edward W. Schwieterman1,2, Christopher T. Reinhard1,3, Timothy W. Lyons1,2 1NASA Astrobiology Institute Alternative Earth’s Team 2Department of Earth Sciences, University of California, Riverside 3School of Earth and Atmospheric Science, Georgia Institute of Technology *Correspondence: [email protected] Table of Contents 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 2 2. Oxygen and biological innovation .................................................................................... 3 2.1. Oxygenic photosynthesis on the early Earth .......................................................... 4 2.2. The Great Oxidation Event ......................................................................................... 6 2.3. Oxygen during Earth’s middle chapter ..................................................................... 7 2.4. Neoproterozoic oxygen dynamics and the rise of animals .................................. 9 2.5. Continued oxygen evolution in the Phanerozoic.................................................. 11 3. Carbon dioxide, climate regulation, and enduring habitability ................................. 12 3.1. The faint young Sun paradox ................................................................................... 12 3.2. The silicate weathering thermostat ......................................................................... 12 3.3. Geological
    [Show full text]
  • Subglacial Meltwater Supported Aerobic Marine Habitats During Snowball Earth
    Subglacial meltwater supported aerobic marine habitats during Snowball Earth Maxwell A. Lechtea,b,1, Malcolm W. Wallacea, Ashleigh van Smeerdijk Hooda, Weiqiang Lic, Ganqing Jiangd, Galen P. Halversonb, Dan Asaele, Stephanie L. McColla, and Noah J. Planavskye aSchool of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia; bDepartment of Earth and Planetary Science, McGill University, Montréal, QC, Canada H3A 0E8; cState Key Laboratory for Mineral Deposits Research, School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Nanjing University, 210093 Nanjing, China; dDepartment of Geoscience, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV 89154; and eDepartment of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511 Edited by Paul F. Hoffman, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada, and approved November 3, 2019 (received for review May 28, 2019) The Earth’s most severe ice ages interrupted a crucial interval in Cryogenian ice age. These marine chemical sediments are unique eukaryotic evolution with widespread ice coverage during the geochemical archives of synglacial ocean chemistry. To develop Cryogenian Period (720 to 635 Ma). Aerobic eukaryotes must have sur- a global picture of seawater redox state during extreme glaci- vived the “Snowball Earth” glaciations, requiring the persistence of ation, we studied 9 IF-bearing Sturtian glacial successions across 3 oxygenated marine habitats, yet evidence for these environments paleocontinents (Fig. 1): Congo (Chuos Formation, Namibia), is lacking. We examine iron formations within globally distributed Australia (Yudnamutana Subgroup), and Laurentia (Kingston Cryogenian glacial successions to reconstruct the redox state of the Peak Formation, United States). These IFs were selected for synglacial oceans. Iron isotope ratios and cerium anomalies from a analysis because they are well-preserved, and their depositional range of glaciomarine environments reveal pervasive anoxia in the environment can be reliably constrained.
    [Show full text]
  • Snowball Earth' Simulations with a Coupled Climate/Ice-Sheet Model
    articles Neoproterozoic `snowball Earth' simulations with a coupled climate/ice-sheet model William T. Hyde*, Thomas J. Crowley*, Steven K. Baum* & W. Richard Peltier² * Department of Oceanography, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843-3146, USA ² Department of Physics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1A7, Canada ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ Ice sheets may have reached the Equator in the late Proterozoic era (600±800 Myr ago), according to geological and palaeomagnetic studies, possibly resulting in a `snowball Earth'. But this period was a critical time in the evolution of multicellular animals, posing the question of how early life survived under such environmental stress. Here we present computer simulations of this unusual climate stage with a coupled climate/ice-sheet model. To simulate a snowball Earth, we use only a reduction in the solar constant compared to present-day conditions and we keep atmospheric CO2 concentrations near present levels. We ®nd rapid transitions into and out of full glaciation that are consistent with the geological evidence. When we combine these results with a general circulation model, some of the simulations result in an equatorial belt of open water that may have provided a refugium for multicellular animals. Some of the most dramatic events in the Earth's history occurred at Recent work4 has focused attention on the Neoproterozoic by the end of the Proterozoic era (this era was about 1,000±540 Myr interpreting new carbon-isotope data to indicate that biological ago). This epoch was characterized by formation of the super- productivity of the oceans virtually ceased for perhaps millions of continent of Rodinia from about 1,000 to 800 Myr ago, the later years during the glacial era.
    [Show full text]
  • Sea Level Variations During Snowball Earth Formation: 1. a Preliminary Analysis Yonggang Liu1,2 and W
    JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH: SOLID EARTH, VOL. 118, 4410–4424, doi:10.1002/jgrb.50293, 2013 Sea level variations during snowball Earth formation: 1. A preliminary analysis Yonggang Liu1,2 and W. Richard Peltier 1 Received 4 March 2013; revised 3 July 2013; accepted 15 July 2013; published 13 August 2013. [1] A preliminary theoretical estimate of the extent to which the ocean surface could have fallen with respect to the continents during the snowball Earth events of the Late Neoproterozoic is made by solving the Sea Level Equation for a spherically symmetric Maxwell Earth. For a 720 Ma (Sturtian) continental configuration, the ice sheet volume in a snowball state is ~750 m sea level equivalent, but ocean surface lowering (relative to the original surface) is ~525 m due to ocean floor rebounding. Because the land is depressed by ice sheets nonuniformly, the continental freeboard (which may be recorded in the sedimentary record) at the edge of the continents varies between 280 and 520 m. For the 570 Ma (Marinoan) continental configuration, ice volumes are ~1013 m in eustatic sea level equivalent in a “soft snowball” event and ~1047 m in a “hard snowball” event. For this more recent of the two major Neoproterozoic glaciations, the inferred freeboard generally ranges from 530 to 890 m with most probable values around 620 m. The thickness of the elastic lithosphere has more influence on the predicted freeboard values than does the viscosity of the mantle, but the influence is still small (~20 m). We therefore find that the expected continental freeboard during a snowball Earth event is broadly consistent with expectations (~500 m) based upon the inferences from Otavi Group sediments.
    [Show full text]
  • Snowball Earth
    Snowball Earth: Jeff Lewis [email protected] What is the Snowball Earth Theory? • Entire planet was covered by snow and ice for prolonged periods between 750 Ma and 635 Ma Marinoan 635 Ma Sturtian 750 Ma What is the Snowball Earth Theory? • It was proposed to explain the paradox of tropical glaciation at sea level in the Neoproterozoic Marinoan 635 Ma Sturtian 750 Ma (Hoffman and Schrag 2000) What is the geological evidence? 1. Glacial deposits 2. Cap carbonates 3. Banded iron formations (BIF) 4. Timing of early life 1. Glacial deposits • Distributed on all continents • Tidal rhythmites indicate that they formed at sea level (Hoffman and Schrag 2000) 1. Glacial deposits • Paleomagnetic data suggest they formed near the equator, none poleward of 60 degrees Snowball Earth 1. Glacial deposits • Multiple magnetic reversals indicate that glaciation lasted several hundreds of thousands, to a few million years 2. Cap carbonates • Warm water deposit • Associated with most Neoproterozoic glacial deposits • Can be hundreds of meters thick 2. Cap carbonates • Aragonite fans indicate rapid deposition under hot temperatures 3. Banded Iron Formation (BIF) • Absent from the geologic record for a billion years 3. Banded Iron Formation (BIF) 4. Timing of early life • DNA calculations put the beginning of multicellular life near the end of the Snowball period Snowball Earth ~750-635 Ma Mechanism: runaway icehouse as advocated by Paul Hoffman (-) CO2 (-) Temp Continental breakup - 30oN (-) Energy (+) Ice absorbed Rodinia formation - 30oS (+) Albedo Runaway icehouse as advocated by Paul Hoffman How to get out of the snowball? Runaway icehouse as advocated by Paul Hoffman How to get out of the snowball? • The atmosphere is cut off from the ocean (no drawdown of CO2) • Volcanic outgassing of CO2 accumulates in the atmosphere • It would take ~ 10 million years to overcome the ice house • Would need roughly 350 times present CO2 levels (~0.12 bar) What are the strengths and weaknesses of the Snowball Earth Theory? 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Climate Cycles & Snowball Earth Hypothesis
    Geobiology 2007 The Climate History of Earth 1. Proterozoic events- this lecture 2-3. Phanerozoic Climate May 3 &8 O2-Paradigm • The C-cycle has evolved radically through time • Prior to 2.2 Ga anaerobic prokaryotes dominated; wide spread of δorg (δo) values; oxygenic photosynthesis extant but oxygen remained low as sinks >> sources • Mantle may have been an important sink for oxidising power (Cloud/Holland) • Extreme δcarb(δa) values around 2.2 Ga probably signify the ‘GOE’ and rise to prominence of aerobes; Decreased spread of δorg (δa) values may reflect dominance of aerobic autotrophs and reductive pentose (Benson-Calvin; C3) cycle O2-Paradigm • Although ample evidence for aerobes, the abundance of O2 in atm and ocean remained low (sulfidic ocean) until another major oxidation event caused a second ‘reorganization’ In the Neoproterozoic. This was also signified by extreme δa fluctuations. • The Neoproterozoic ‘reorganization’ led to pO2 rising to near PAL allowing animals to flourish and stabilizing the new regime (Hayes, Rothman, et al.) • Environmental evolution reflected changes in the balance between thermal, crustal, atmospheric & biological processes Image removed due to copyright restrictions. Please see Cover Image from GSA Today 14 (March 2004). The Climate History of Earth 1. Proterozoic events- this lecture Image removed due to copyright restrictions. Need to know: Please see Fig. 3 in Kaufman, Alan J., and Xiao, Shuhai. "High CO2 Levels in the Proterozoic Atmosphere estimated Age distribution of extreme climate events from analyses of Individual Microfossils." Nature 425 (September 18, 2003): 279-282. Evidence for extreme climate events Assigned Reading: Stanley, pp. 84-101 & 288-289.
    [Show full text]
  • Elevated CO2 Degassing Rates Prevented the Return of Snowball Earth During the Phanerozoic
    ARTICLE DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-01456-w OPEN Elevated CO2 degassing rates prevented the return of Snowball Earth during the Phanerozoic Benjamin J.W. Mills1,2, Christopher R. Scotese3, Nicholas G. Walding2, Graham A. Shields 4 & Timothy M. Lenton2 The Cryogenian period (~720–635 Ma) is marked by extensive Snowball Earth glaciations. These have previously been linked to CO2 draw-down, but the severe cold climates of the Cryogenian have never been replicated during the Phanerozoic despite similar, and some- times more dramatic changes to carbon sinks. Here we quantify the total CO2 input rate, both by measuring the global length of subduction zones in plate tectonic reconstructions, and by sea-level inversion. Our results indicate that degassing rates were anomalously low during the Late Neoproterozoic, roughly doubled by the Early Phanerozoic, and remained com- paratively high until the Cenozoic. Our carbon cycle modelling identifies the Cryogenian as a unique period during which low surface temperature was more easily achieved, and shows that the shift towards greater CO2 input rates after the Cryogenian helped prevent severe glaciation during the Phanerozoic. Such a shift appears essential for the development of complex animal life. 1 School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK. 2 Earth System Science, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4QE, UK. 3 Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60201, USA. 4 Department of Earth Sciences, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK. Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to B.J.W.M.
    [Show full text]