Funwithfire, i personally cannot read all that because i’m not even studying that stuff or even understand most of the words and have to use google.
I believe the world was more of a slushball because of the sun? because i highly doubt it could of been completely frozen because mars is further then us and wasn’t created into an iceball. Also, i don’t think it could of been an iceball due to the amoeba and other fairly simple life forms surviving. Bacteria can’t handle weather like that.
So, slushball?
Haha, I’m surprised you even tried. Thanks though! It’s actually pretty feasible to start the snowball earth. The sun was younger then and emitted 6% less radiation. Mix that together with some complex greenhouse gases/rock/ocean interaction and you have conditions in which glaciation on massive scales can happen. Once the ice reaches within 30º of the equator, it would create a positive feedback loop. The high albedo of the snow/ice reflect more of the sun’s energy and thus, the earth gets cooler and the ice advances even further, causing higher albedo and more reflection. This continues until the ice covers the planet.
The life could survive by living near hydrothermal vents. That’s actually one possible location for the start of life.
Anyway, thanks for trying to read some of it. There is a lot of geologic evidence supporting snowball earth, but you can also interpret it differently and come up with other hypothesis, such as slushball earth or the zipper rift hypothesis. Anyway, I’m sure you probably don’t care. Thanks though,
I like educating myself in facts.But one thing, These “hydrothermal vents” couldn’t be ice, could it? Also, is 6 percent really that much of a difference?
Also i understand the whole “lake warming effect” thing. I think that alot of it could be ice but not all could possibly be that way. Well, i’m getting technical.
The oceans wouldn’t be frozen right through;no one’s proposing that. It is called snowball earth because it would look like a snowball from space. It would be glaciers floating on top of the ocean, much like they do today in places. As for the sun, 6% is pretty significant when you consider how much of an impact the sun has on our climate and how fragile the earth is.
Anyway, I’m off to bed. Thanks for your input. It was nice to have a discussion with someone about this. It was fun.
