Scottish and Irish rock formations dating back hundreds of millions of years may be evidence of what scientists call a Snowball Earth, a new study suggests.
The Snowball Earth theory proposes that the planet’s oceans and land were covered in ice during at least two extreme cooling events between 2.4 billion and 580 million years ago.
These are speculated to have fueled the development of life on Earth – what researchers now call the Port Asca Formation Scotland And Ireland Between 662 and 720 million years ago, it may have been laid down during such an extreme cooling event.
Scientists point to a section of exposed rock in the Scottish Isles, known as Carvellocks, that shows the transition from a previously warm and tropical environment to a snowball Earth.
Elias Rugen, study co-author and PhD candidate at UCL Earth Sciences, said their research into rock formation „provides the first firm age constraints for these Scottish and Irish rocks, confirming their global importance”.
Most of the world, he explained, is missing layers of rock that record a tropical climate and mark the change, because ancient glaciers scraped away and eroded the underlying rocks.
„But in Scotland we may see change through something of a miracle,” Mr Rugan said.
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For the new study, the research team examined sandstone samples from the Port Askig Formation and the older, 70m-thick Curb Eleach Formation.
The researchers said the new age constraints for the rocks could provide the evidence they need to be declared a marker for the start of the Cryogenian period — when scientists believe the development of complex life began on Earth.
Senior author Professor Graham Shields of Earth Sciences, University College London (UCL), said: „These rocks record the time when the Earth was covered in ice.
„All complex, multicellular life, such as animals, arose from this deep freeze, and the first evidence in the fossil record appeared shortly after the planet thawed.”
The study is published in the Journal of the Geological Society of London.