Why did the Earth enter the ice age? Science has already been discovered

About 700 million years ago, the Earth was covered in ice almost from the poles to the equator. although ice Age The Earth has been around for about 57 million years, and what caused this is still an open question to science.

Now, Australian researchers seem to have discovered a possible reason. In a study published in the magazine geologyThey used plate tectonic modeling and identified a thermostat-like ability on Earth, preventing the planet from entering an overheating mode.

Understand the research

To understand the pattern of plate movement and changes in Earth's temperature, researchers studied the evolution of continents and ocean basins at a specific moment: the separation from the ancient supercontinent.

Moreover, they also linked the plate tectonics model with computational intelligence to calculate the release of carbon dioxide (CO2) from volcanoes.

In this way, they realized that the beginning of the Ice Age, 717 million years ago, coincided with a record drop in volcanic carbon dioxide emissions. In general, carbon dioxide waste remained relatively low throughout the glacial period.

Thus, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere decreased to the level at which glaciation begins. According to researchers' estimates, the percentage of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has reached less than 200 parts per million. This is less than half the current level.

Therefore, the scientists stated in the study that geology determined the climate at that time.

“The reorganization of tectonic plates reduced the degassing of volcanic gases to a minimum, while a continental volcanic province in Canada began to erode, consuming carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,” explains Dietmar Müller, one of the authors of the study.

Advances in science

For the researchers, the work demonstrates how sensitive the global climate is to the concentration of carbon in the atmosphere. This, in turn, raises doubts about the long-term future.

“Whatever the future holds, it is important to note that geologic climate change, of the type studied here, occurs very slowly.” Adriana Dutkiewicz, who is also an author of the study.

According to NASA, human-caused climate change is happening 10 times faster than we've ever seen before.