The snowball soil hypothesis: checking the bounds of global change

Introduction

Kirschvink proposed that the preponderance of land masses in the middle and reduced latitudes set the stage for snowball events, consistent with existing palaeomagnetic data for LNGD. Reconstructions in which land masses are middle on the (south) beam hinge on Laurentia's migration to high latitudes by 577 Ma, after the last snowball happening, the migration which could have completed the snowball era rather than being the precondition for it.

 

Tests of Snowball Earth Event

 Polar ice caps may decrease global weathering rates and militate against snowball events if large land areas exist at high latitudes, ...