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Through thick and thin: Marine and meteoric ice in a “Snowball Earth” climate
Author(s) -
Goodman Jason C.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2006gl026840
Subject(s) - snowball earth , geology , sea ice , earth system science , atmosphere (unit) , cryosphere , climatology , earth science , climate model , arctic ice pack , paleoclimatology , oceanography , climate change , physical geography , paleontology , glacial period , meteorology , geography
Marine ice cover in the frigid Neoproterozoic climate system tends to isolate the ocean: the thickness of this ice, and thus the degree of isolation, is an important unknown in geochemical and biological arguments regarding the fully‐glaciated “Snowball Earth” hypothesis. The Pollard and Kasting (2005) coupled atmosphere/ice model has been modified to track ice of marine and atmospheric origin separately, and model their different optical properties. In contrast to Pollard and Kasting's results, a tropical region of thin ice is not stable in this model: ice is hundreds of meters thick everywhere. The overall pattern of the hydrological cycle in a Snowball climate is also discussed.