Science & Technology

Record of 'Snowball Earth' discovered on remote Scottish islands

By T.K. Randall
August 18, 2024 ·  12 comments

An aerial view of the Garvellachs. Image Credit: CC BY-SA 2.0 John Allan Evidence of ice ages aren't particularly unusual in Earth's geological record, but there is one ice age in particular about which scientists still know very little - a period known as Snowball Earth.

This event began 720 million years ago and left almost the entire planet's surface frozen over across two periods spanning more than 80 million years.

Today, very little evidence now remains of this freezing cold period of Earth's history, but now a potential gold mine of such evidence seems to have been found in the Garvellachs - a remote, uninhabited archipelago situated in Scotland's Inner Hebrides.

According to scientists, this may in fact be the only place in the whole world that still contains a detailed record of this particular period of our planet's history.At the time, Scotland was situated south of the equator and had a predominantly tropical climate.

"We capture that moment of entering an ice age in Scotland that is missing in all other localities in the world," study leader Prof Graham Shields of University College London told BBC News.

"Millions of critical years are missing in other places because of glacial erosion - but it is all there in the layers of rock in the Garvellachs."

With any luck, further study of the area should help scientists piece together exactly how and why the Earth entered into this extensive period of deep freeze.

It may also help to reveal its role in facilitating the emergence of animal life.

Source: BBC News | Comments (12)

Tags: Earth