Laura is a science news writer, covering a wide variety of subjects, but she is particularly fascinated by all things aquatic, paleontology, nanotechnology, and exploring how science influences daily life. Laura is a proud former resident of the New Jersey shore, a competitive swimmer, and a fierce defender of the Oxford comma.
ArticleBody:Our planet used to be a snowball. Roughly 635 and 720 million years ago, Earth was completely covered in thick ice. While somewhat barren at the time, this period eventually proved to be crucial for hosting complex life on Earth. Now, an international team of scientists believe that they have found the most complete geological record of “snowball Earth” in Scotland and Ireland's Port Askaig Formation.
” Yesterday’s ice leads to today’s rocks To search for hard evidence of this time period, the team looked to the Port Askaig Formation. This rock formation spans present day Ireland and Scotland and is made up of several layers that are up to a half mile thick in some spots. One exposed outcrop on a group of Scottish islands called the Garvellachs contains geological evidence of our planet’s transition from warm and tropical into a frozen snowball during the Sturtian glaciation.
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