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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Sedimentary challenge to Snowball Earth -

Philip A. Allen & James L. Etienne

doi:10.1038/ngeo355

The Snowball Earth concept envisages a fully frozen Earth for millions of years several times during the Neoproterzoic Era between 1,000 and 542 million years ago. However, the sedimentary evidence suggests that despite the severity of glaciation, some oceans must have remained ice-free.

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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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A carbon isotope challenge to the snowball Earth -

P. Sansjofre, M. Ader, R. I. F. Trindade, M. Elie,J. Lyons, P. Cartigny & A. C. R. Nogueira

doi:10.1038/nature10499

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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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Snowball Earth prevention by dissolved organic carbon remineralization -

W. Richard Peltier, Yonggang Liu & John W. Crowley

doi:10.1038/nature06354

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