What is the Snowball Earth Hypothesis?

"Snowball Earth" is the global freezing phenomenon. It was a concept proposed by American scientist Joseph Kosvenk in the early 1990s. It has appeared at least 3 times in the history of the earth. ^[1]

Snowball earth

Through the study of geological sediments and other geological evidence, scientists have for many years believed that the earth has been completely frozen between 800 million and 550 million years.

United States

According to McDonald, during the "Snowball Earth" period, some species survived and evolved into new species. "Snowball Earth" has a refuge in open waters, or at least cracks in the ice layer. For example, there is life under the Antarctic ice layer, allowing the life of the earth to continue in the ice.

There are several possibilities for life to survive in the ice:

1. Near the deep-sea geothermal mouth;

2. Life can spend the frozen period in a similar way to spore dormancy;

3. In low-latitude ice sheet island peak areas, volcanism and solar radiation may melt part of the ice during the day, resulting in temporary puddles;

4. Under the ice layer, an ecosystem similar to "mineral metabolism" can provide a haven;

5. There will be liquid puddles under the ice sheet. Similar to Lake Vostok in Antarctica.