![This illustration contrasts Earth's oceans during ancient glaciations (left) with deglacial conditions (right). Syracuse University researchers found that oceans lost oxygen not just during warm periods, but repeatedly during Earth's deepest ice ages, a pattern preserved in manganese deposits within ancient seafloor rock. (Courtesy: Xubin Wang, generated with AI)-- [Syracuse University]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Metal-deposits.jpg?resize=1200%2C720&ssl=1)
[Syracuse University] An international team of researchers analyzed manganese and other chemical signatures preserved in more than 27,000 ancient seafloor samples collected from six continents. Across six major glaciations spanning […]
Ice Age
Posted inBiogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology
Fire And Ice: Were Yellowstone’s Past Volcanic Eruptions And Glaciations Related?
[USGS/Yellowstone Volcano Observatory] Yellowstone is a land of fire and ice. Not only does it have a history of different styles of volcanic eruptions, but it has also been covered […]
![Maps of GEOCLIM simulation (two time slices). “0” maps (left column) are the initial condition, “1” maps (right column) are at the perturbation peak (3 Myr of run time, cf Fig. 4a). (a0–1) Topography and oceanic O2 concentration at bottom of water column, (b0–1) physical erosion rate, showing enhanced physical erosion around the Variscan orogeny, and (c0– 1) regolith depletion quantified by the proportion of unweathered mineral at top of regolith. The uplifted area is contoured in magenta on each map. The boundaries of oceanic boxes, and their corresponding continental drainage basins are drawn on each map (white solid and blue dotted lines). GEOCLIM computes one mean O2 concentration for each of the 21 boxes. The maps panels (a0–1) show the mean concentrations of GEOCLIM bottom boxes drawn on the full geographic extent of these boxes at the oceanic resolution of the FOAM ocean-atmosphere general circulation model [90] simulations, which were used as GEOCLIM forcing. -- Science China Press](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/What-triggered-Earths.png?resize=1200%2C720&ssl=1)
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Press Release
What Triggered Earth’s Shift From A Greenhouse To An Icehouse Climate And The Onset Of The Late Paleozoic Ice Age?
Scientists have debated for decades what caused the Late Paleozoic climate transition from a greenhouse to an icehouse state ~350 million years ago. Some invoke a pronounced increase in continental […]
Posted inAstrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Mars, Status Report
The Dependence of Earth Milankovitch Cycles on Martian Mass
The Milankovitch cycles of Earth result from gravitational interactions with other bodies in the Solar System.
Posted inAstrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Mars, Press Release
What A Martian Ice Age Left Behind
Earth isn’t the only planet to go through ice ages. A handful have hit our home planet in the last 2.5 billion years, with the most recent – which peaked […]
Posted inArctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Fossils & Paleontology, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
A Carbon Cycle Flaw Can Plunge Earth Into An Ice Age
UC Riverside researchers have discovered a piece that was missing in previous descriptions of the way Earth recycles its carbon. As a result, they believe that global warming can overcorrect […]
![Site locations and hypothesized pan-Arctic glaciation. ODP Site 910 and MD99-2277 (red dots) are located in the Eurasian sector of the Arctic Ocean and central Nordic Seas, respectively. Site 910 lies just beyond the margins of the maximum MIS 2 Eurasian ice sheets [gray dashed line; based on (51)], while MD99-2277 was simultaneously covered by sea ice. However, both sites are hypothesized to have been fully glaciated under the maximum pan-Arctic ice sheet extent (white shaded extent with blue flow lines) proposed by Hughes et al. (75) [modified from Jakobsson et al. (7) and Geibert et al. (3)]. - Science Advances](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Ice-World-Oceanography-The-Arctic.png?resize=1200%2C718&ssl=1)
Posted inArctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Icy Worlds, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Ice World Oceanography: The Arctic Ocean Remained Open To Life During Ice Ages
For years, scientists have debated whether a giant thick ice shelf once covered the entire Arctic Ocean during the coldest ice ages.
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biophysics, Extinction events, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Press Release, Radiation, Space Weather & Heliophysics
The Most Extreme Solar Storm Hit Earth In 12350 BC
New research uncovers the strongest solar event ever detected — rewriting our understanding of space weather and radiocarbon dating.
Posted inAnalog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Icy Worlds, Press Release
Melting Glaciers May Have Sped Up Continental Drift and Fueled Volcanic Eruptions
Around 10,000 years ago as the last Ice Age drew to a close, the drifting of the continent of North America, and spreading in the Atlantic Ocean, may have temporarily […]
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Cryobiology, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Four-million-year Marinoan Snowball Shows Multiple Routes To Deglaciation
Twice during the Neoproterozoic Era, Earth experienced runaway ice-albedo catastrophes that resulted in multimillion year, low-latitude glaciations: the Sturtian and Marinoan snowball Earths.