The climate of our planet changed wildly 700 million years ago , and the Earth get several unusual episodes of global temperature reduction . This frosty menstruation is ordinarily referred to as " Snowball Earth " and scientists now think they know what caused it . Plate Tectonics .
The Earth ’s incrustation has experienced tectonic drift since its formation but between 800 and 600 million age ago , the supercontinent of Rodinia began to crack . The date reach roughly coincides with Snowball Earth , but for researchers at the University of Texas ( UT ) in Dallas and in Austin , it ’s not a coincidence . As report in the journalTerra Nova , the team looked at the 22 potential causes of the world temperature reduction and found that all of them could be consequences of plate plate tectonics .
" We went through the lit and examined all the mechanism that have been put forward for Snowball Earth . The start of home base tectonics could be responsible for each of these explanation , " lead author Robert Stern , professor of geosciences at UT Dallas , say in astatement .
" earthly concern is the only consistence in our Solar System bonk to presently have home tectonics , where the lithosphere is fragmented like puzzle pieces that move severally . It is much more rough-cut for planets to have an outer solid shell that is not fragmented , which is know as ' individual lid architectonics ' . "
The geologic era of Snowball Earth , known as the Neoproterozoic , saw spectacular change to the major planet . The establishment of home tectonics convert oceans , disturb the atmosphere , and led to the formation of mountains and shallower ocean . It also ensue in the formation of volcanic chains as well as change in Earth ’s drape .
" The fact that potent mood and oceanographic effect are observed in the Neoproterozoic prison term is a powerful supporting argument that this is indeed the fourth dimension of the passage from single eyelid to plate plate tectonics , " Stern added . " It ’s an disputation that , to our knowledge , has n’t yet been considered .
" In the present day , clime is in the newsworthiness because we ’re modify it by putting more carbon dioxide into the atm . But imagine a time when Earth did n’t have plate tectonics , and it then evolved to have denture tectonics – that would have been a major shift in the Earth ’s operating system , and it would have had a huge upshot on climate , too . "
There are currently seven major plates on Earth and several smaller ones . They are move at a f number like to the one our fingernail grow at and are creditworthy for mould the appearance of our satellite .
