Space News Latest Earth News Algae Provide Evidence that Earth Never Froze Completely Space Pages
- Home
- Space News
- Space Encyclopedia
- Solar System Planets
- The Milky Way
- Space Travel
- Space History
- Search
- Science Nexus
Space Polls
Algae Provide Evidence that Earth Never Froze Completely |
| Written by SerenaStargazer | |
| Monday, 22 August 2005 | |
|
Alison Olcott of the University of Southern California, and her colleagues have found biomarkers of algae that seem to prove that the Earth never froze completely. While geologists agree that the Earth was in a deep freeze twice during the period from about 750 to 850 million years ago, they disagree regarding whether it was completely frozen, or had areas of thin ice or open ocean.
Olcott and her team have discovered rocks in Brazil that were deposited during a deep freeze. They contain biomarkers of a community of photosynthetic algae and other microbes. These could not have lived under thick ice, which would have blocked the light necessary for photosynthesis, but they could have lived under thin ice or open water. |
|
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
© 2008 Space Travel Archive
Website Design York Interweb
Website Design York Interweb