St Petersburg College the Snowball Earth Hypothesis Discussion
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- Required: Snowball Earth, Paul Hoffman and Daniel Schrag, Scientific American, Jan. 2000.
- Optional: A Neoproterozoic Snowball Earth. Hoffman, P., Kaufman, A., Halverson, G. and Schrag, D. Science. August 1998.
- Optional: The BBC Horizon Documentary Snowball Earth: How the Planet Froze and Lived to Tell is available on YouTube
Assignment:
- The roots of the snowball earth hypothesis go back almost 100 years.
What were the earliest clues that the earth may have been completely
covered in ice at some time in the past? (15 points) - Carbon dioxide (CO2) is often called a greenhouse gas . What effect
would decreased CO2 levels in the atmosphere have on the climate?
Explain (15 points) - A portion of all solar radiation (heat from the sun) is absorbed by
the earth and a portion is reflected back out into space. The amount of
solar radiation that a material reflects back out to space is called the
albedo . Do sea-ice and continental glaciers have a higher or lower
albedo compared to sea-water and land vegetation? What effect would
expanding glaciers have on the amount of solar radiation that is
absorbed by the earth? Explain. (15 points) - According to the Snowball Earth hypothesis, what caused the earth to
become completely frozen over (global glaciation)? Specifically,
describe the plate-tectonic conditions, and the chemical and physical
mechanisms that drove the earth into a deep-freeze. (15 points) - Previous to the work of Hoffman and Schrag, many scientists thought
that the earth would not recover (warm) from a snowball earth, if it
ever happened. Describe Hoffman and Schrag s hypothesis of how the earth
would have reversed the deep freeze and entered a global hothouse
state. (15 points) - Paleontologists have observed that the period directly following the
neo-proterozoic is characterized by a huge expansion and diversification
of life. This significant evolutionary interval is oft referred to as
the Cambrian Explosion . According to the authors how did the snowball
earth significantly effect, and perhaps even catalyze, the Cambrian
Explosion? (15 points) - What do you think about the Snowball Earth Hypothesis? Is it a
reasonable hypothesis in light of the evidence uncovered so far? What
could be an alternative hypothesis to explain the existence of so many
glacial deposits found directly underneath (and immediately before in
time) tropical warm ocean deposits? (10 points)
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