State Of Research On The “Snowball Earth Hypothesis“

The "Snowball Earth Hypothesis" also known as the"Varangia glaciation" is a hypothesis presented in 2001 by Geologist Paul Hoffman. (Wikipedia, 2002)

The hypothesis purposes that 540 million years ago during the Neoproterozic, a meter thick of ice covered the oceans and glaciers the continents for 100 million years. Albedo; when ice and snow reflect solar radiation into space, in absents of greenhouse gases, which don't exist within the atmosphere, heat therefore escapes the planet. A condition of temperature disequilibrium occurs, when freezing cold reaches a state, the climate never warms to normal, and cold freezes the hemisphere and buries it under massive glaciation.

The glaciers begin when a green house gas, carbon dioxide, is depleted from erosion of silicates. Once the atmosphere is depleted of carbon dioxide, it can not absorb solar radiation. The global tempertures drops to cold and glaciation occurs, glaciation continues, temperature gradients drop further to colder, below freezing, cold is irreversible, glaciers reflect solar radiation into space. The lack of atmospheric carbon dioxide prevented greenhouse from occurring, earth is frozen until

Research included conducting a geologic survey of the Congo craton, facies of Ghaub formation fill valleys. Rock specimens were taken from the lower glacial intervals (Chugs Formation) to just beneath the unconformity at the base of Mulden group, Southern Damara margin of the craton and Kaoko craton, Kalahari craton, Amadeus basin. These rock specimens were microdrilled and the elements Sr, Mn, Fe, Ca, Mg were measured for abundance using inductively coupled plasma emission spectoscopy to assess diagenetic alteration. These sample were analyzed offline for DELTA 13 CARBON AND DELTA 18 OXYGEN after digestion for 3 hours in H2po4 at 50'C to insure complete reaction of dolomite: the evolved gas was measured on a finnigan mat, other research consisted of fisions secter mass spectrometer, graphite -furnace atomic absorption spectoscopy, leached in NH4CH3COO, digestion in weak acetic acid. (Hoffman, et. al. 1998)

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