Life may have survived in shallow liquid oceans during an extreme ice age around 650 million years ago.
This slushball Earth theory is based on evidence that Algeo and his colleagues discovered of a type of saltwater vegetation called benthic phototrophic macroalgae. This type of algae is found in black shale, a dark-colored, organic-rich sediment laid down in the geological record during various periods in. This particular black shale dates back around 600 million years, coinciding with the Marinoan glaciation.
This indicates that habitable ocean conditions may have been more extensive than previously thought, and extended into oceans between the tropics and the polar regions. Life in the form of single-celled and multi-celled organisms could have sheltered in these open oceans as the Earth thawed at the end of the Marinoan ice age.
"We present a new Snowball Earth model in which open waters existed in both low- and mid-latitude oceans," Song said, adding that the Marinoan would have been punctuated with periods of melting and freezing and life could have persisted during this 15 million-year or so period. Algeo added that these refuges for life may have actually helped Earth warm and bring an end to the Marinoan Ice Age. This is because algae in the water would have released carbon dioxide, and this greenhouse gas would have then trapped heat that thawed glaciers.
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