title: Paleoproterozoic snowball earth: extreme climatic and geochemical global change and its biological consequences.
abstract: Geological, geophysical, and geochemical data support a theory that Earth experienced several intervals of intense, global glaciation ("snowball Earth" conditions) during Precambrian time. This snowball model predicts that postglacial, greenhouse-induced warming would lead to the deposition of banded iron formations and cap carbonates. Although global glaciation would have drastically curtailed biological productivity, melting of the oceanic ice would also have induced a cyanobacterial bloom, leading to an oxygen spike in the euphotic zone and to the oxidative precipitation of iron and manganese. A Paleoproterozoic snowball Earth at 2.4 Giga-annum before present (Ga) immediately precedes the Kalahari Manganese Field in southern Africa, suggesting that this rapid and massive change in global climate was responsible for its deposition. As large quantities of O(2) are needed to precipitate this Mn, photosystem II and oxygen radical protection mechanisms must have evolved before 2.4 Ga. This geochemical event may have triggered a compensatory evolutionary branching in the Fe/Mn superoxide dismutase enzyme, providing a Paleoproterozoic calibration point for studies of molecular evolution.
authors.affiliation: Division of Geological Sciences, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Division of Biology, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA. kirschvink@caltech.edu
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Kirschvink
authors.forename: E J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Gaidos
authors.forename: L E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Bertani
authors.forename: N J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Beukes
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gutzmer
authors.forename: L N
authors.initials: LN
authors.lastname: Maepa
authors.forename: R E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Steinberger
mesh_terms: D000349:Africa; D001419:Bacteria; D002980:Climate; D000458:Cyanobacteria; D018534:Earth, Planet; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D007053:Ice; D007501:Iron; D008345:Manganese; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009792:Oceans and Seas; D010100:Oxygen; D010802:Phylogeny; D013482:Superoxide Dismutase; D013995:Time
chemical_list: D007053:Ice; D008345:Manganese; D007501:Iron; D013482:Superoxide Dismutase; D010100:Oxygen