Some of the most dramatic climatic events in our planet’s history are “Snowball Earth” events that happened hundreds of millions of years ago, when almost the entire planet was encased in ice up to 0.6 miles thick. New research from the University of Washington provides a more complete picture for how the last Snowball Earth event ended, and suggests why it preceded a dramatic expansion of life on Earth, including the emergence of the first animals.
Tag: glacial ice
Sea ice melt, warming ocean temperatures and emergency response: Experts discuss the return of El Niño
The University of Delaware boasts several experts who can talk about El Niño’s return and its wide-reaching impacts, from record-breaking temperatures to sea ice melt that has been shattering scientists’ expectations. Wei-Jun Cai: Air-sea CO2 flux; carbon cycling in estuaries…
Measuring Melting Ice
As glacial ice melts, what happens to the freshwater and how it is affecting coastal systems in Antarctica becomes an important question. The University of Delaware’s Carlos Moffat has been awarded a five-year, $787,528 National Science Foundation (NSF) Early Faculty Career Development Award.
Brown carbon ‘tarballs’ detected in Himalayan atmosphere
Researchers reporting in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology Letters have detected light-absorbing “tarballs” in the Himalayan atmosphere, which could contribute to glacial melt.
The Magnetic History of Ice
The Weizmann Institute’s Prof. Oded Aharonson found that ancient ice holds magnetic particles. The finding could shed greater light on the Earth’s magnetic field reversals, supplement magnetic field data from rocks and sediment, and identify field reversals on other bodies in our Solar System, such as Mars.