Huronian Glaciation

The Huronian glaciation

The Archean Eon

The Paleoprotozoic Era

The Earth During this time

Melezhik, Victor A. “Multiple Causes of Earth’s Earliest Global Glaciation: Causes for the Huronian-Age Glaciation.” Terra nova (Oxford, England) 18.2 (2006): 130–137. Web.Brasier, A.T. et al. “Earth’s Earliest Global Glaciation? Carbonate Geochemistry and Geochronology of the Polisarka Sedimentary Formation, Kola Peninsula, Russia.” Precambrian research 235.235 (2013): 278–294. Web.

2500-2000 Ma

The Huronian Glaciation happened during the Archean-Paleoprotozoic Eon transition.

The Huronian Glaciation Explained:

The Huronian Glaciation was caused by a number of things. First, temperatures began to drop as CO2 levels went down and O2 levels whent up in the atmosphere. Green house gasses were majorly changing as CO2 concentration was lowered because of weathering of silicates. CH4 was eliminated because of the quick rise of oxygen in the atmosphere. Methane was also largely removed from the atmosphere as a result of this photosynthetic oxygenation.

Interesting Facts

Sources:

In the beginning of the Archean Eon, there was a lot of water. The Earth at this time was almost 98% covered in ocean. Then came photosynthesizing microbes who took carbon dioxide out of the air and released lots of oxygen into the atmosphere, more than there had ever been. This cause a great temperature rise.

The earth during this Huronian Glaciation was frozen over- it had never seen such cold. Glaciers covered the continents and most all of the earth was covered by ice. The Huronian Glaciation caused mass extenction of most anerobic life on earth at the time.

Interesting facts about the Huronian Glaciation:

• The Huronian Glaciation is the oldest know glaciation of significance
• It is named after the Huronian supergroup studied in Canada
• The Great Oxygenation Event is thought to be one of the causes of the Huronian Glaciation
• The Huronian Glaciation was first discovered in 1907
• The Huronian Glaciation is a compilation of several ice ages

The Paleoproterozoic era was one where most anerobic microbes died off because of the excess oxygen caused by photosynthesizing microbes.