Snowball Earth - Boardman

This topic submitted by Boardman (boardman@muohio.edu) on 2/2/04.

Great opening questions. I'm particularly glad you asked the second question:
What research is there that supports and refutes the fact that the earth was once covered in ice?

A detailed questioning of the origin of the data and the ways that the data support the idea are critical to understanding this incredible and remarkable event. The proposition is so preposterous. It is as preposterous as the theory that the earth revolves around the sun or the theory that the Earth has a beginning and an end.

And your last question is a great one. "So What?" "Why care?"

Predictions:
I suggest you stay closely tuned to the Milankovitch group. You might even get together with them to brainstorm some time during the term.
Also: your predicitons are all of a physical nature. What about a prediction that the onset of "LIFE" or change in some life process caused a perturbation in the climate? The early workers on this topic were not bio-geo-eco-workers. They were sedimentary petrologists and stratigraphers. They framed the questions and they framed the hypotheses. Try to get beyond their stranglehold on the ideas of origin.

Preliminary research design: Great start. Get the principal articles (Hoffman articles) and the most recent one. Then search the references listed in the most recent one.

Good job.

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