Earth 600 my ago

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Neoproterozoic 'snowball Earth' simulations with a coupled climate/ice-sheet model

WILLIAM T. HYDE et al
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.

The authors present computer simulations of this unusual climate stage with a coupled climate/ice-sheet model. To simulate a snowball Earth, they use only a reduction in the solar constant compared to present-day conditions and keep atmospheric CO2 concentrations near present levels. They find rapid transitions into and out of full glaciation that are consistent with the geological evidence. When they 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.

Nature 405, 425 - 429 (2000) (c) Macmillan Publishers Ltd.

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