Incomplete Snowball Earth Shows Divine Care
TNRTB Archive – Retained for reference information
Remains of photosynthetic organisms from 700 million years ago provide evidence for a supercaring Creator preparing a suitable habitat for humanity. A growing body of evidence argues for a snowball Earth event—where glaciers extended from the poles nearly to the equator, thus covering the whole Earth—around 700 million years ago. Geologists would expect runaway glaciation during such events, where glaciers completely cover a planet with little chance of the glaciers receding. A team of international scientists found biomarkers of photosynthetic activity and a complex microbial ecosystem during this last snowball event. These results demonstrate that the earth was not completely covered in glaciers and that sections of the equatorial oceans were exposed to sunlight. It is remarkable that runaway glaciation did not make the earth uninhabitable. Instead, shortly after the earth emerged from the snowball event, the largest explosion of biological advance occurred during the Cambrian explosion. RTB’s creation model predicts outcomes like this where major geological events are used to prepare Earth for the introduction of more advanced species of life.
- Alison N. Olcott et al., “Biomarker Evidence for Photosynthesis During Neoproterozoic Glaciation,” Science 310 (2005): 471-74.
- https://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/310/5747/471%20
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