There seems to be a possibility of an unknown ice age millions of years ago, and now it has been discovered by the University of Aberdeen geologists.
They have found some rock features in Torridon caused by pebbles from the icebergs which were melting to the depth of the lakes.
That being said, the rocks are “relatively calm” period on Earth which is also known to be the “boring billion” It took place around 1,800- to 800 million years ago. It could be the first signs of glaciation, according to the researchers.
The evidence of the oldest ice gage happened more than 2 billion years ago, which consisted of several ice age. Prof. Adrian Hartley and his fellow scientists from the University of Aberdeen’s c School of Geosciences published it in the Scottish Journal of Geology. According to the professor “In Earth’s middle ages, it is thought that not very much happened on the planet.
“Throughout this so-called ‘boring billion’, the global climate was temperate and unchanged. Life was limited to algae in the ocean, the land was completely barren, and oxygen was 10% of what it is now.
“Until now, no evidence for climate change had been discovered, but our study has shown there was ice at Earth’s surface during this period.”
“It’s the first evidence globally for glaciation at this time in Earth’s history – proving it wasn’t such a boring billion after all.”
“We discovered by analysing silty lake sediments that are a billion years old, allowing us to identify locations where pebbles had fallen from melting icebergs and had formed impact features on the lake floor, deforming even older layers of sediment.”
“It’s the first evidence globally for glaciation at this time in Earth’s history – proving it wasn’t such a boring billion after all.”
This is not the first discovery in Scotland to have the geological history books changed. The NUI Galway and University of Maine researchers also found some ancient seashells in the same county, and that was evidence how fast the climate could vary based on the ice age’s end, known as the Younger Dryas era.
The professor also noted, “Similar studies have allowed us to reconstruct the recent glacial history of the Earth, but this takes us much further back in time to when Scotland was located at 35°S – the same latitude as South Africa.”
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