Remote isles may solve mystery of 'Snowball Earth'

[Wicked Blue]

BBC

A remote cluster of Scottish islands could help solve one of our planet's greatest mysteries, scientists say.

The Garvellach islands off the west coast of Scotland are the best record of Earth entering its biggest ever ice age around 720 million years ago, researchers have discovered.

The big freeze, which covered nearly all the globe in two phases for 80 million years, is known as "Snowball Earth", after which the first animal life emerged.

Clues hidden in rocks about the freeze have been wiped out everywhere - except in the Garvellachs. Researchers hope the islands will tell us why Earth went into such an extreme icy state for so long and why it was necessary for complex life to emerge.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj9l2mrn43jo

[pansypoo53219]

1. bet it was krakatoa.

[sorcrow]

2. Interesting

Thanks for posting this. What an amazing thing to discover during your PhD studies. I think it's great he's in the running for Golden Spike even if he has to make do with a carrot for the time being.

Best regards
Sorghum Crow

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. The Garvellachs are not "remote", however

They're about 5 miles off the Scottish mainland, and less than 100 miles from Glasgow.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Garvellachs/@56.1771893,-4.6771474,9z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x488bd091cb71ab05:0xce822ea4306f620c!8m2!3d56.2333333!4d-5.7833333!16zL20vMDJqbTI4?entry=ttu

[Igel]

4. If it's any consolation,

as of 9/2/24, the article's been revised to remove the word "remote".