'Snowball Earth': Glaciers, ice packs once met at Equator

The Register ^ | 5th March 2010 12:47 GMT | Lewis Page

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

American boffins say they have discovered evidence that almost the entire world was covered in sea ice and glaciers at certain points in the remote past, during so-called "snowball Earth" periods where the polar ice sheets met at the Equator.

It were grim in the old days.

Geologists probing conditions seen in the ancient world have long considered that there was a cold spell known as the Sturtian Glaciation about 716 million years ago. However there has been disagreement in boffinry circles as to just how severe this glaciation was.

Now, researchers from Harvard uni in the States, funded by the US government, say they have found ironclad proof that there were glaciers right down on the Equator at that time. Tropical rocks from the Sturtian, which have since migrated up to remote northwestern Canada, show unmistakable signs of having been covered in big ice back then.

"This is the first time that the Sturtian glaciation has been shown to have occurred at tropical latitudes, providing direct evidence that this particular glaciation was a 'snowball Earth' event," says geology brainbox Francis Macdonald of Harvard.

"Our data also suggest that the Sturtian glaciation lasted a minimum of five million years," he adds.

"Ice may have covered the entire planet then," comments Enriqueta Barrera, federal science bigwig, "turning it into a 'snowball Earth'."

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I posted a thread from the JoNova website on that Cloud theory...it is on the keyword list ,...I'll see if I can chase it down...

Weekly Standard has a great article coming in the March 25 issue....the cover:

FR Thread:

In Denial ( The meltdown of the climate campaign. )

[SunkenCiv]

similar topics:

• Ice Once Covered the Equator
• Cold And Ice, Not Heat, Episodically Gripped Tropical Regions 300 Million Years Ago
• Geologists Look for Answers in Antarctica: Did Ice Exist at Equator Some 300 Million Years Ago?

sidebars:

• New Study Says Global Warming May Be Signal of Impending Ice Age
• The big picture: 65 million years of temperature swings
• Were short warm periods typical for transitions between interglacial and glacial epochs?
• Lessons From an Interglacial Past
• How Well Do Scientists Understand How Changes in Earth's Orbit Affect Natural Climate Trends?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

You need to read this as to how the Global Warming campaign came to be....heard of Maurice Strong...see this thread:

Global Warming The Anthropocentric Crisis

***********************************Excerpt Intro*********************************

Global Warming is Not a Proven Fact

Simply put, climate change – originally an emerging new ice age, then global warming and now climate change – is not a proven fact. To sarcastically mimic the affected gravitas of certain warming experts, we might call it an “anthropocentrically manufactured” issue.

As mentioned in Part 2, in the late 1960’s the United Nations assigned Canadian Maurice Strong, a man possessed of a strong belief in the merits of global governance and the need to establish transnational governmental institutions, to head up what subsequently came to be known as the global climate change initiative.

Mr. Strong, aptly named in spite of possessing the forgettable demeanour of a faceless bureaucrat, has had a successful career as an entrepreneur, businessman and government executive building impressive business and political connections throughout the world. His skills and contacts have made him personally wealthy. He has been able to knit together an extremely effective network of the world’s decision makers in both government and business. While ideologically anchored, he is a master pragmatist in the pursuit of his objectives.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

And we have this:

Gateway to the UN Systems work on Climate Change

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

See #43.

[Marine_Uncle]

I have read elsewhere about Strong over the past year or so. He along with Hansen, Holdren and a host of other control freaks really thought they would pull this whole damn scam off with no real opposition. The tide is now changing.

[Moonman62]

These warmer periods mean that, despite the severe glaciation of this time in Earth history, the complete deep-freeze suggested by 'Snowball Earth' theories never took place, and that some areas of open, unfrozen ocean continued to exist.

Which is compatible with the new finding that the Earth was mostly covered with ice, not completely covered.

[Steve Van Doorn]

notice at the time of the melting there was a great deal of 'something' theory is CO2. So much so it went from large packed ice to melted ice very fast.

I would suggest a large meteorite hit or very large caldera type volcano much greater then Yellowstone.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

On the Cosmic rays...FR Thread:

Do Cosmic Ray Changes Regulate Ice Ages? Global Warming Puzzler

[colorado tanker]

Boffins and eggheads wanna have fun, too.