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News & Views
Early earth: Snowballs limited by weathering -
A. Joshua West
doi:10.1038/ngeo1330
A series of extreme cooling episodes, starting 750 million years ago, could have repeatedly turned the planet into an ice-covered snowball. Carbon cycle modelling suggests that the timing of the glaciations can be explained by chemical weathering rates.
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Palaeoclimate: Marinoan meltdown -
Graham Anthony Shields
doi:10.1038/ngeo214
The termination of the Marinoan glaciation 635 million years ago is one of the most spectacular climate change events ever recorded. Methane release from equatorial permafrost might have triggered this global meltdown.
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Palaeontology: Extinction before the snowball -
Frank A. Corsetti
doi:10.1038/ngeo533
A widespread biotic turnover occurred around the time of the Sturtian glaciation. Microfossil analyses show that one regional extinction pre-dates the glacial advance, challenging the more severe models for glacial effects in the Neoproterozoic era.
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Letters
Timing of Neoproterozoic glaciations linked to transport-limited global weathering -
Benjamin Mills, Andrew J. Watson, Colin Goldblatt, Richard Boyle & Timothy M. Lenton
doi:10.1038/ngeo1305
The Neoproterozoic Snowball Earth glaciations were separated by tens of millions of years, although models suggest glacial inception should occur within millions. Numerical modelling suggests that the delay could be explained by inherent limits on silicate weathering rates controlled by the availability of fresh rock.
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Dynamics of a Snowball Earth ocean -
Yosef Ashkenazy, Hezi Gildor, Martin Losch, Francis A. Macdonald, Daniel P. Schrag & Eli Tziperman
doi:10.1038/nature11894
Extensive glaciations, possibly even a globally ice-covered Snowball Earth, took place in the Neoproterozoic era, and here the possible ocean circulation at that time, under a kilometre of ice, is described.
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Ocean oxygenation in the wake of the Marinoan glaciation -
Swapan K. Sahoo, Noah J. Planavsky, Brian Kendall, Xinqiang Wang, Xiaoying Shi, Clint Scott, Ariel D. Anbar, Timothy W. Lyons & Ganqing Jiang
doi:10.1038/nature11445
Data are presented that support the idea of an oxygenation event in the immediate aftermath of the Marinoan glaciation, pre-dating previous estimates for post-Marinoan oxygenation by more than 50 million years.
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Articles
Osmium evidence for synchronicity between a rise in atmospheric oxygen and Palaeoproterozoic deglaciation -
Yasuhito Sekine, Katsuhiko Suzuki, Ryoko Senda, Kosuke T. Goto, Eiichi Tajika,Ryuji Tada, Kazuhisa Goto, Shinji Yamamoto, Naohiko Ohkouchi, Nanako O. Ogawa & Teruyuki Maruoka
doi:10.1038/ncomms1507
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