The Earth’s surface experienced the largest crustal erosion event in Earth’s history some 700 million years ago, paving the way for animal life to develop, according to a major new study involving the University of Southampton.
The Earth’s surface experienced the largest crustal erosion event in Earth’s history some 700 million years ago, paving the way for animal life to develop, according to a major new study involving the University of Southampton.
A team of scientists present compelling new evidence for scouring of three to five kilometres across all the continents during the Neoproterozoic Era (one billion to 550 million years ago) which would have seen the Earth’s crust washed into the oceans in unprecedented volumes. The research is published in the journal PNAS.
The discovery provides the strongest explanation yet for the origin and extent of the ‘Great Unconformity’ – a profound gap in the Earth’s rock record – exposed most dramatically in the Grand Canyon in the United States. Here, sedimentary rocks from the Cambrian era, which began 550 million years ago, were deposited directly on top of rocks from the Mesoproterozoic era, which ended one billion years ago.
The erosion happened when most of the Earth’s surface was covered in ice during a severe glaciation, dubbed ‘snowball Earth’, that lasted over 50 million years.
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Image via University of Southampton.
