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Research Supports "Snowball Earth" Hypothesis

u2boy_nl writes, "A new U.S. study finds evidence for 'Snowball Earth,' the hypothesis that the entire Earth was ice-covered for long periods on several occasions, most recently 600-700 million years ago. The icy conditions (Earth's oceans frozen completely with ice more than a kilometer thick) ended violently under extreme greenhouse conditions — snowballearth.org suggests the meltdown could have occurred in as little as 2,000 years. Snowball Earth challenges long-held assumptions regarding the limits of global change. Wikipedia has more on the hypothesis."

7 of 243 comments (clear)

  1. Frost post! by Harmonious+Botch · · Score: 4, Funny

    Sorry.. couldn't resist it.

    Seriously, I wonder if there could be evidence of organisms tolerant of saltier conditions if all that ice left the remaining water saltier.

    1. Re:Frost post! by modecx · · Score: 2, Funny

      Seriously, I wonder if there could be evidence of organisms tolerant of saltier conditions if all that ice left the remaining water saltier.

      Well, there's Paris Hilton...

      --
      Constitutional rights may be respected, repealed, or modified; but they must never be ignored.
  2. Hmm... by locokamil · · Score: 2, Funny

    I always did want to live on Hoth. The big question, however, is whether or not we'll have tontons when the next snowball era rolls around.

  3. Wontons by tygt · · Score: 2, Funny
    Let's combine that hypothetical event with a hypothetical future cultural takeover and we get..... Tauntaun Wontons!

    Just bring a package of wonton skins along with you on your next perimeter patrol - if things go too badly, gut your tauntaun with your light saber, carve it up a bit, wrap some in a wonton skin, and then use the light saber to boil some water.

    Scrumptious!

  4. Cavemen by flyingfsck · · Score: 3, Funny

    Those cavemen must have burned a hell of a lot of oil to cause sufficient greenhouse gas to get the earth to warm up again.

    --
    Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
    1. Re:Cavemen by ozbird · · Score: 2, Funny

      Those cavemen must have burned a hell of a lot of oil to cause sufficient greenhouse gas to get the earth to warm up again.

      That was the Golgafrinchams burning the forests to solve the inflation problem caused by making leaves legal tender.

  5. Re:Shoot ... score one for the Bush admin by cheater512 · · Score: 2, Funny

    The earth runs out of bits and overflows in to negative temperatures.
    Once the feedback loop spirals out of control the temperature will drop to -32,768.