Our recent work shows how M-Earth climates and transmission spectra depend on the amount of ice-free ocean on the planet’s dayside and the mass of N2 in its atmosphere. M-Earths […]
snowball earth
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Resilience of Snowball Earth to Stochastic Events
Earth went through at least two periods of global glaciation (i.e., “Snowball Earth” states) during the Neoproterozoic, the shortest of which (the Marinoan) may not have lasted sufficiently long for […]
Posted inAstropharmacy / Biotechnology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Webb Telescope Finds A Potentially Habitable Icy World
A international team of astronomers led by Université de Montréal has made an exciting discovery about the temperate exoplanet LHS 1140 b: it could be a promising “super-Earth” covered in […]
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Cryobiology, Extinction events, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Why The Harsh Snowball Earth Kick-started Our Earliest Multicellular Ancestors
For a billion years, single-celled eukaryotes ruled the planet. Then around 700 million years ago during Snowball Earth — a geologic era when glaciers may have stretched as far as […]
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Cryobiology, Extinction events, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Icy Worlds, Press Release
Global Deep Freeze Periods During Snowball Earth Events
A Yale-led research team has picked a side in the “Snowball Earth” debate over the possible cause of planet-wide deep freeze events that occurred in the distant past.
Posted inArctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Astrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Cryobiology, Extinction events, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Icy Worlds, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Press Release
What Turned Earth Into A Giant Snowball 700 Million Years Ago?
Australian geologists have used plate tectonic modelling to determine what most likely caused an extreme ice-age climate in Earth’s history, more than 700 million years ago.
Posted inBiophysics, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report
Physical Constraints During Snowball Earth Drive The Evolution Of Multicellularity
Molecular and fossil evidence suggest that complex eukaryotic multicellularity evolved during the late Neoproterozoic era, coincident with Snowball Earth glaciations, where ice sheets covered most of the globe.
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Press Release
Snowball Earth Might Have Been Slushball Earth
At least five ice ages have befallen Earth, including one 635 million years ago that created glaciers from pole to pole.
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather
New Research Strengthens Link Between Glaciers And Earth's 'Great Unconformity
New research provides further evidence that rocks representing up to a billion years of geological time were carved away by ancient glaciers during the planet’s “Snowball Earth” period, according to […]
Posted inHabitable Zones
Bacterial Bloom As Earth Thawed: Photosynthetic Organisms During Snowball Earth
Some researchers hypothesize that ice sheets enveloped the earth during the Marinoan glaciation (650-535 million years ago) in what is dubbed the “Snowball Earth.” The glaciation also impacted the climate […]