Snowball Earth or Slushball Earths - Times Earth Was Covered in Ice

Explore the fascinating phenomenon of Earth's ice ages in this comprehensive 26-minute video lecture. Delve into the three major snowball earth events: the Makganyene, Sturtian, and Marinoan glaciations. Learn about their timing, causes, and evidence, including global glacial deposits, banded iron formations, and cap carbonates. Examine the factors that led to these events, such as weathering, volcanic activity, and solar intensity. Discover how these ice ages ended through CO2 buildup and greenhouse effects. Investigate the impact on biological evolution, including the development of eukaryotes and multicellular life. Gain insights into the debate between snowball and slushball Earth hypotheses, and explore recent laboratory experiments synthesizing multicellular organisms.

Video outline
What is snowball earth?
When was snowball earth?
What caused snowball earth?
Evidence for snowball earth?
Glacial deposit evidence
Banded iron formation BIF evidence
Cap carbonate evidence
Carbon isotope evidence
Boron isotope evidence
Iridium evidence
Subsidence and flooding
Why did snowball earth end?
How snowball earth affected evolution?
Recap of snowball earth events
Bloopers!