Nick Iraca

Geoscience 320

Snowball Earth
Introduction
Planet Earth is always changing over prolonged periods of time. The
four spheres of the Earth the cryosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and
atmosphere all interplay with one another and can create different scenarios
of the Earth. Historic data such as proxies and other records have shown us
that the Earth has been exposed to both sides of the spectrum completely
cold during the glacial periods but also experiencing a warm sauna-like state.
The periods of glacial freezing of the Earth has been deemed Snowball
Earth. Snowball Earth is theorized as a state when the planet was
completely frozen over from the poles to the equator. Glaciers extended
from the poles covering and carving the continents as well as creating a shell
over the vast oceans. Some speculations believe the equator to have been in
a more slush-like state rather than completely frozen solid, but average
temperatures across the globe were still believed to be around -50C
(Hoffman and Schrag, 2000). There are many skeptics that believe a
Snowball Earth could not have occurred due to the planet not being able to
escape that cold of a state, but strong evidence has been found to lead us to
believe that a Snowball Earth was very likely, and scientists have come up
with plausible solutions to how Earth could reverse its frozen state.

Three instances of Snowball Earth have occurred in the past during the
Proterozoic Eon, ranging from around 2220 million years ago to around 650
million years ago. The first episode of global glaciation occurred at the
beginning of the Proterozoic (2220 million years ago) and is called the
Makganyene, the next episode was ~710 million years ago called
Sturtian, and the final episode was 640 million years ago, theMarinoan
(Snowball Earth, 2009). Evidence shows each period lasting for millions of
years, until the Earth finally was able to battle back and eventually warm up.
In order to understand the Snowball Earth theory, we will have to start at the
beginning and figure out what caused the Earth to completely freeze over strong enough to even freeze at the equator.
Mechanisms Triggering a Snowball Earth
The main culprits believed to be responsible for triggering a Snowball
Earth are greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane. During this time,
the main contributor of carbon dioxide to the Earth was through explosive
volcanic activity. The carbon dioxide in the atmosphere then creates acid
rain, eventually falling back down to the surface and flows to the ocean
where it is used up by organisms such as cyanobacteria. This process is
called silicate weathering and still occurs to this day even with changes in
overall carbon dioxide levels. The rate of silicate weathering is determined
by the climate. Silicate weathering happens at a much faster rate in areas
where it is hot and has a lot of moisture, whereas it is slower in cold and dry
areas found at much higher latitudes. The rate of silicate weathering during

the Snowball Earth periods are believed to be higher than usual due to the
movement of tectonic plates controlling the locations of the continents
(Snowball Earth, 2009). The continents were mainly stationed in closer to the
equator away from the high latitude poles. It is also believed that the
continents had just separated allowing more moisture to reach inland on
most continents a condition favorable for silicate weathering. Since the
continents were receiving a lot more sunlight than usual due to their
location, things started to heat up and create more moisture. This led to a
faster silicate weathering process removing more carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere. Since there was less greenhouse gas in the atmosphere
available to warm the Earth, it caused temperatures to drop and ultimately
help create a cooler global climate. Low levels of methane in the atmosphere
caused by high levels of carbon dioxide before the Snowball Earths occurred
also never bounced back enough to help warm the climate and therefore
helped in fueling global glaciation (Snowball Earth, 2009). The low to middle
latitude location of the continents also contributed to a higher albedo of the
Earth. Ocean waters tend to absorb most of the solar radiation that reaches
the Earth, while continents tend to reflect more of the solar radiation
(Kirschvink, 1992). Due to the location of the land masses and the high
amount of sunlight that reaches the equator, a lot of the sunlight would be
reflected rather than absorbed, contributing to a cooler global atmosphere. It
is also important to mention that the sun was younger in the past, and

therefore dimmer, releasing ~6% less radiation than it currently does today
(Hoffman, 2001).
All of these conditions favored an increased ice-albedo feedback
(Hoffman and Schrag, 2002). Due to the high albedo of ice, sunlight is
reflected rather than absorbed. The previously mentioned conditions that
fashioned a cooler climate would allow the ice at the poles to grow,
increasing the overall albedo of the planet. More ice means more reflection,
and the process accelerates itself until it possibly gets out of control. If the
ice sheets at the poles were to reach around 30 latitude, a runaway iceabledo feedback would occur due to the amount of solar radiation being
reflected (Hoffman and Schrag, 2000). This would allow the ice sheets to
extend to the low latitude tropics, practically covering the entire planet with
ice. Evidence supporting global glaciation has been found in rock layers
across the globe, meaning a Snowball Earth was plausible.
Evidence Supporting the Snowball Earth Theory
Many scientists discredit the idea of a Snowball Earth because they
believe if the Earth ever experienced that cold of a state, the scenario would
be permanent and unable to reverse back to warmer temperatures.
Furthermore, before the discovery of extremophiles, many believed that all
life previous to Snowball Earth wouldnt perish in that cold of climate. The
discovery of cap carbonates, glacial deposits, banded iron formations (BIF),

and carbon isotopes during the Proterozoic era strongly support the idea of
global glaciation.
A lot of controversy lies around the location of the continents relative
to their glacial deposits. Many believe that the glacial deposits found
presently on low latitude continents (that normally wouldnt have glacial
deposits) is caused by said continents being near the poles in the past,
rather than at the equator. This would refute the idea of Snowball Earth,
however, paleomagnetism has shown this is not the case. Paleomagnetism is
able to tell us the latitude at which rocks formed in the past.
Paleomagneticians are able to track the orientation of magnetic minerals
found in rock deposits around the period of global freezing. These minerals
tend to line up at the time the deposit was formed in the direction of Earth's
magnetic field: If horizontal, the deposit formed at the equator, where
magnetic field lines running pole to pole parallel the surface; if vertical, at
one of the poles, where field lines plunge toward the core. (Kerr, 2000).
Paleomagnetism can be controversial, because if the rocks containing the
magnetic minerals melt and reform throughout their lifetime, the alignment
of the minerals may change. However, researchers have confirmed that the
Earths magnetic field switched multiple times during low latitude glacial
deposition, meaning the low latitude deposition was not remagnetized as it
would wipe out previous magnetizations and we would be left with a single
magnetization alignment (Kerr, 2000). With these findings, low latitude

glacial deposition can be proven when looking at cap carbonates, BIFs, and
dropstones found within the glacial deposits.
The first piece of evidence supporting the Snowball Earth theory is the
carbon-12/carbon-13 isotope ratio found in cap carbonates (another piece of
evidence). Hoffman and Schrag (2002) proposed that the low levels of
carbon-13 in cap carbonates was due to the lack of a biological pump during
glacial periods. Normally, biology at the surface is able to break down and fill
the bottom layers of the ocean with carbon 13. During the deglaciation
process, the melting ice allowed the deep carbon-13 to upwell to the surface,
releasing their carbon dioxide and forming low carbon-13 levels in cap
carbonate sediment layers. The low carbon-13 layers are also in part due to
most photosynthetic organisms preferring carbon-12 over carbon-13, and
since there wasnt a lot of carbon-12 in the atmosphere the plants had to use
the carbon-13 which led to depleted levels of carbon-13 (Hoffman and
Schrag, 2002).
The formation of these cap carbonates also supports the Snowball
Earth theory, the following theory of cap carbonate information was
proposed by Hoffman and Schrag (2002). Large cap carbonate layers were
found overlaying Proterozoic glacial deposit layers. Cap carbonates are rich
in carbonate sediments, which is hypothesized to be from the high sea level
rise that occurred during the deglaciation process. When the ice started
melting, it allowed the ocean and atmosphere to interact as it has previously
done. This caused an increase in silicate weathering, but not enough to

remove the large amounts of carbon dioxide that had been laden in the
atmosphere due to volcanic activity. The increase in silicate weathering
allowed for high levels of carbonates to fall into the ocean due to the acid
rain weathering silicate rocks. The high sea levels allowed the high level of
carbonates to be deposited on flooded lands, creating carbonate layers
above the glacial deposits. (Hoffman and Schrag, 2002)
Hoffman and Schrag (2002) also hypothesized a theory based on
Banded Iron Formations (BIFs), which were also found within or below the
glacial deposit layers. BIFs occur when low levels of oxygen are present on
Earth, causing layers of iron to form. This hypothesis is consistent with the
theory of Snowball Earth due to the climatic factors at the time. With the
layer of ice covering the oceans, it removed the ocean-atmosphere
interactions. This caused the ocean to become more anoxic, or low in
oxygen, therefore allowing iron from deep sea vents to dissolve in the ocean
waters. When the ice finally melted, it allowed the ocean to once again trade
with the atmosphere. The thermohaline circulation allowed for the upwelling
of the ocean waters rich in iron to come to the surface. This caused the iron
to react with the oxygen, making it insoluble in the water, creating large
layers of BIFs within glacial layers. BIF layers have been found in parts of
Australia, Northern America and Canada, as well as southern Africa in the
Sturtian glacial period. (Hoffman and Schrag, 2002)
The final piece of evidence is a small layer of iridium found after the
glacial deposits. Iridium is only supplied to Earth from space in extremely

small amounts and in present conditions gets mixed in with the atmosphere
and ocean. This was proposed by Bodiselitsch et al., (2005) in which the
conclusion was made that if iridium was only available from space, then a
planet that is frozen solid would accumulate a large amount of space
material within the ice (Bodiselitsch et al., 2005). Bodiselitsch researched
three different sediment cores within the Eastern Congo craton over the
Proterozoic era. Iridium layers were found at the base of cap carbonate
layers near the glacial deposits at levels of around 2 parts per billion (ppb)
(Bodiselitsch et al., 2005).
Escaping the Icy Grips: Deglaciation
As previously mentioned, one of the biggest criticisms of the Snowball
Earth theory was that a climate completely overtaken by the ice-albedo
feedback would have a very slim chance of reversing back to a warm state,
and therefore wasnt possible. Research on rock layers, such as cap
carbonates and the carbon-13 increase, demonstrate that the warming
period must have occurred in a short time period relative to the 4 30
million year freeze. Due to a completely, or almost completely, ice sheet
coating of the Earth, the water cycle and silicate weathering process were
almost completely absent from the global system (Le Hir et al., 2007). This
means that there was no process at the time that could remove greenhouse
gases from the atmosphere and transfer them into the ground. As it turns
out, one of the main factors that triggered Snowball Earth was also a factor
that helped melt it back to a warmer state. Without a process to remove

carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, it eventually built up thanks to tectonic

plate activity. Even though the surface was covered in thick layers of ice, the
tectonic plates were still able to move allowing volcanoes to rescue the
frozen planet. The primary source of carbon dioxide was through the release
of these volcanoes, which were located underwater as well as exposed
through the glacial ice. This eventually allowed carbon dioxide to accumulate
within the ocean waters and atmosphere over time. With an increased
amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, things started to warm up and
ice around the equator started to melt first, revealing the oceans. Since the
oceans have a lower albedo, they are able to absorb more sunlight and take
in warmth. This begins reversing the ice-albedo feedback and more and more
ice begins to melt causing the glaciers to retreat back to the poles. This
theory complies with the evidence found; such as BIFs and cap carbonates.
This explains why these layers are found above the glacial deposits in large
amounts.
The discovery of extremophiles also presented a solution as to how life
could have survived through these cold harsh conditions. Most plants and
animals today would have been froze to death and went extinct over the
multi-million year freeze. Fortunately for us, extremophiles were able to
inhabit oases which were mainly found in small bodies of water near the
quator, as well as near hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor (Corsetti et al.,
2006). These oases could also have been in areas where the ice was thin,
giving life a small chance of survival (Kerr, 2000).

10

Conclusion
The theory of Snowball Earth has remained controversial over the past
couple decades. With the discovery of supporting pieces of evidence such as
cap carbonates, carbon isotope ratios, and banded iron formations, many
scientists today have accepted this theory and continue to study and work
on it. The Snowball Earth theory is a good explanation of these records
occurring around glacial deposit layers. By looking at these past proxy
records it can give us a better idea of what the climate may be like in the
future. We can determine how certain systems such as silicate weathering
and the interplay between the ocean and atmosphere can impact our global
climate. Furthermore, we can see how these systems effect and change
different ecosystems across the continents, and what they may be like in the
future.
The history of Earth shows that it constantly moves between glacial
and interglacial phases, however extreme scenarios such as Snowball Earth
are a lot less likely to occur in the future. This is mainly due to the fact the
sun has gotten brighter and therefore more solar radiation is reaching the
Earth. Anthropogenic activities have also led to an increase in greenhouse
gas concentrations in the atmosphere, ultimately warming the global
climate. However, biogeoengineering events such as putting reflective discs
in space and human cloud creation could get out of control and create a
cooler planet leading to Snowball Earth like conditions, but research is still
being conducted before these drastic measures are undertaken.

11

References
Bodiselitsch, B., Koeberl, C., Master, S., & Reimold, W. U. (2005). Estimating duration
and intensity of Neoproterozoic snowball glaciations from Ir anomalies. Science,
308(5719), 239-242.
Corsetti, F. A., Olcott, A. N., & Bakermans, C. (2006). The biotic response to
Neoproterozoic snowball Earth. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology,
232(2), 114-130.
Hoffman, P. F. (2001, June). Snowball Earth: promise and problems. In Earth System
Processes Geologic Conference. The Geologic Society of America and The Geologic
Society of London. Edinburgh, Scotland (Vol. 28).
Hoffman, P. F., & Schrag, D. P. (2000). Snowball earth. Scientific American, 282(1),
68-75.
Hoffman, P. F., & Schrag, D. P. (2002). The snowball Earth hypothesis: testing the
limits of global change. Terra nova, 14(3), 129-155.
Kerr, R. A. (2000). An appealing snowball earth that's still hard to swallow. Science,
287(5459), 1734-1736.
Kirschvink, J. L. (1992). Late Proterozoic low-latitude global glaciation: the snowball
Earth.

12
Le Hir, G., Ramstein, G., Donnadieu, Y., & Pierrehumbert, R. T. (2007). Investigating
plausible mechanisms to trigger a deglaciation from a hard snowball Earth.
Comptes Rendus Geoscience, 339(3), 274-287.
SNOWBALL EARTH. (2009). U.S. National Science Foundation. Retrieved April 03,
2016, from http://www.snowballearth.org/