The Earth is the only known planet with perfect living conditions that allows the survival of the humans. However, we all know that even the Earth has been through extreme cold temperatures, popularly termed as Ice Age.
According to scientists, such cases, where the entire Earth was covered with snow and ice, has happened twice in the past. These events, known as Snowball Earth, took place around 700 million years ago, and the science suggests that these consecutive global ice ages resulted in setting the environment conditions for the origin of multicellular life on Earth.
For years, scientists have tried out to find the reason that might have caused the entire earth to freeze. While there has been no similar conclusion, it is now believed that such an event might have been a result of the Earth reaching a critical threshold, which could have been something similar to decrease in the direct incoming sunlight or low levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide.
A team of scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has now put forward another conclusion, revealing that the Snowball Earths might have been the result of “rate-induced glaciations.” The latest research has been published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society A.
The study reveals that the global ice age would have dawned upon earth after the level of solar radiation changed quickly over a short period. The drop in the solar radiation must have resulted in decrease in incoming sunlight, thus causing a temporary glaciation or Snowball Earth.
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