Snowball fight erupts over frozen Earth theory

LiveScience via MSNBC ^ | Monday, May 7, 2007 | Michael Schirber

[SunkenCiv]

The theory that the Earth long ago froze completely over, like a giant snowball, is challenged by new data from desert outcroppings in Oman. The geological measurements indicate that even as glaciers spread across all the continents 700 million years ago, warm spells with liquid water were still common... "It was Earth's great escape," said geologist Philip Allen of Imperial College London. "The Earth experienced probably the most profound glaciation in its history, but somehow it pulled back from the brink of global catastrophe." ...Snow and ice reflect roughly 80 percent of sunlight back into space, while seawater reflects about 10 percent and dry ground somewhere in between the two. This reflected light counts as a loss of potential heat... "It's kind of the reverse of the greenhouse effect," Allen explained... Could it happen again? The sun has become 6 percent stronger since the Cryogenian, so it should be harder to freeze the Earth now. It's worth noting that ice sheets reached only New England (45 degrees latitude) during the last Ice Age 20,000 years ago, said Schrag... "Although [Snowball Earth] is a great idea, I am convinced it didn't happen," Allen said.

[SunkenCiv]

WARNING: I suspect that this is the work of another global warming demagogue.

Sedimentary rocks found in the Jabal Akhdar mountains of Oman show evidence of weathering that may contradict the Snowball Earth model. Philip Allen / Livescience

[SunkenCiv]

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[SunkenCiv]

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[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

We may need a snaowball in Southern California today....tremendous warmup even here on the beach which has been chilly since last year...ForecastFox is saying we will get up to 101 degrees /.....

[ApplegateRanch]

Shmooballs? No wonder they're extinctified!

[SunkenCiv]

I think Granny is to blame for the Schmoo extinction — happened during the 1968 presidential campaign.

[Little Bill]

Al Kapp a favorite of mine. My Grandfather read me the Little Abner comics every Sunday 60 years ago.

Mankind survived the last Ice Age transition because Schmoo's tasted like Mastodon and were common as dirt. LBJ destroyed America by using the last Schmoo's as a substitute for the Ham in "Ham and Mothers" in C-Rats, during the Viet Nam Conflict.

[Sam Ketcham]

How could anyone think the earth froze solid 700MM years ago? Some where else in this blog are DNA analysis of Aborigines etc showing statistically that the first migration from Africa was 1.5MM years ago, followed by the next one 700MM years ago. Perhaps the amount of livable space was shrunken and there was no migration, but I do no have enough references on that aspect

[SunkenCiv]

700 million years ago — versus 1.5 million years ago for a migration. Big difference. :’)