Has the earth was, at some point in its history, a gigantic snowball? This is difficult to believe today, given the diversity of climates found on the planet. However, long before the appearance of dinosaurs, our planet could have been a giant ice cream as a whole. This is in any case what a study published in November 2024 highlights in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Rocks formed thanks to ice
At the origin of this hypothesis on the ground of snowball, there are sedimentary rocks of Colorado. These would have formed several hundred million years ago, when the waltz of the continents had led North America at the level of the current equator.
And until the discovery of these particular sedimentary rocks, we thought that the phenomenon of “snowball soil” had not extended to the equator. However, the geological formation found in the state of Colorado could only be formed by the pressure induced by a gigantic glacial cap. In other words, this region was, at one point, covered with ice.
It remains to be seen when. For this, the researchers were able, thanks to a radiometric dating, to estimate that their training took place between 690 and 660 million years ago. Or, during the period of the ice age which corresponds to the theory of the “Snowball Earth”.
Why has the earth turned into a snowball?
Now that it is estimated that the whole of the earth has been covered with a gigantic layer of ice, a question remains: why has the earth suddenly transformed like this?
We speak of an extreme cold which had made everything freeze everything on earth, but also at sea. From space, extraterrestrial observers if they have been there at the right time therefore had to observe our planet to look like a gigantic snowball. A little heavy to be launched during a battle however.
And for the moment, if hypotheses exist as to the explanation of the “snowball earth”, the debate continues to exist within the scientific community to find out how it happened.
On the one hand, some people think that the earth has turned into a giant snowball following the release of particles that reflected sunlight to the extreme then causing its cooling. Then after several tens of millions of years, the global warming and the melting of the ice would have been caused by the CO2 released in the atmosphere thanks to the volcanoes.
On the other hand, some researchers believe that this may also be due to the fall of an asteroid that would have turned the climate of the whole planet, a phenomenon already “observed” just after the extinction of dinosaurs for example.
Anyway, we will not have the answer to this question right away. But science allows us, little by little, to move towards the resolution of this mystery.
Source : Slate
With an unwavering passion for local news, Christopher leads our editorial team with integrity and dedication. With over 20 years’ experience, he is the backbone of Wouldsayso, ensuring that we stay true to our mission to inform.
