What is it about?
Earth experienced extreme climate swings during the Neoproterozoic epoch, including the Sturtian glaciation, when ice likely covered the planet. Explaining aspects of the geologic record and the survival of life through this event has been a long-standing puzzle. Additionally, geochronology indicates that the Sturtian lasted for 56 Myr — far longer than can be accommodated by standard models of climate evolution. Here, we use a model of the carbon cycle and climate to show that Earth may have alternated between ice-covered and ice-free states for the duration of the Sturtian. This “limit cycle” regime resolves the discrepancy between modeled and observed duration, is consistent with the sedimentary record, and explains how oxygen could have persisted in the atmosphere.
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This page is a summary of: Repeated snowball–hothouse cycles within the Neoproterozoic Sturtian glaciation, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, April 2026, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2525919123.
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