Volcanoes may have trapped Earth in a 56-million-year ice age, but the story is far more complex than that. While climate models can explain the onset and end of an ice age, the Sturtian glaciation, which lasted 56 million years, defied these models. This is where the research of Charlotte Minsky and her team comes in. They argue that the standard math never quite added up, and their new model suggests that volcanoes may have triggered the Sturtian ice age by removing huge amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The Franklin Large Igneous Province in Canada played a crucial role in this process, as the volcanoes there flooded the region with lava and blanketed a massive area in fresh basalt. This basalt weathered and removed carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, leading to a prolonged ice age. The implications of this research are far-reaching, as they suggest that habitability on Earth and other rocky worlds may be far less stable than scientists once assumed. The study is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and opens up new avenues for understanding the complex interplay between volcanoes, climate, and life on our planet.
