Produced by: Tarun Mishra Designed by: Manoj Kumar
Researchers have uncovered physical evidence indicating that Earth was entirely frozen during the “Snowball Earth” period, spanning roughly 720 to 635 million years ago.
The study focused on Colorado’s Tava sandstones in the Rocky Mountains, which provide vital geological clues supporting the theory of global glaciation.
During this period, Colorado was positioned near the equator on the ancient supercontinent Laurentia, making the discovery of glacial features there particularly significant.
The Tava sandstones show signs of being pushed underground by ice sheets, a process similar to geological formations under current Antarctic ice sheets.
Using laser ablation mass spectrometry, researchers dated the burial of these rocks to between 690 and 660 million years ago, aligning with the Snowball Earth phase.
Credit : NASA
Scientists suggest that understanding Snowball Earth may provide insights into how extreme climate conditions influenced early multicellular life’s evolution.
This freezing phase is believed to have ended just before the emergence of multicellular organisms, setting the stage for complex life.
The study, led by Liam Courtney-Davies from the University of Colorado Boulder, was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on November 11, adding new understanding of Earth’s ancient climate shifts.