The Snowball Earth theory states that the planet stayed locked in a relentless and complete glaciation for tens of millions of years. But, this theory has been contradicted by a recent study, which reveals that the Earth’s climate swung rapidly between severe glaciations and warm periods around 640 million years ago.
Congratulations to Imperial College London’s Philip Allen and colleagues for revealing this dramatic past of our planet. After studying chemical weathering in sedimentary rocks aging between 630 and 640 million years, they exposed the truth of the Earth’s past habits.
Sunshine and rain make some minerals in rocks decompose, but not all. They measured the ratio of weathered to unweathered minerals in Oman. From this comparison, Allen’s team was able to identify both the glacial and the warm periods.
During the glacial period, very little weathering occurred and that of the warm ones, the weathering was strong.