A Neoproterozoic Snowball Earth

1998/08/28 by Paul F. Hoffman, Alan J. Kaufman, Galen P. Halverson +1 · 2,685 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · Chemistry · #Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils #Geology and Paleoclimatology Research #Methane Hydrates and Related Phenomena #Snowball Earth #Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere #Geology #Glacial period #Earth science #Carbonate #Subaerial #Carbon dioxide #Volcano #Carbonate rock #Carbon cycle #Geochemistry #Oceanography #Paleontology #Climate change #Sedimentary rock #Chemistry #Ecosystem #Ecology

paper · doi:10.1126/science.281.5381.1342

published in Science 281(5381), 1342-1346 (American Association for the Advancement of Science)

openalex publication_date 1998/08/28 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

Negative carbon isotope anomalies in carbonate rocks bracketing Neoproterozoic glacial deposits in Namibia, combined with estimates of thermal subsidence history, suggest that biological productivity in the surface ocean collapsed for millions of years. This collapse can be explained by a global glaciation (that is, a snowball Earth), which ended abruptly when subaerial volcanic outgassing raised atmospheric carbon dioxide to about 350 times the modern level. The rapid termination would have resulted in a warming of the snowball Earth to extreme greenhouse conditions. The transfer of atmospheric carbon dioxide to the ocean would result in the rapid precipitation of calcium carbonate in warm surface waters, producing the cap carbonate rocks observed globally.

Citations

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• Breakup of a supercontinent between 625 Ma and 555 Ma: new evidence and implications for continental histories
• Comparative Earth History and Late Permian Mass Extinction
• The Proterozoic supercontinent Rodinia: paleomagnetically derived reconstructions for 1100 to 800 Ma
• Mid-Ocean Ridge Hydrothermal Fluxes and the Chemical Composition of the Ocean

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