Episode 124 - Snowball Earth

The Common Descent Podcast

Common Descent

Science, Education, Earth Sciences, Natural Sciences, Science:natural Sciences

4.8 • 764 Ratings

🗓️ 17 October 2021

⏱️ 120 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

An Earth covered in ice might sound far-fetched, but there’s reason to think it has actually happened in the past – more than once. In this episode, we examine the Snowball Earth hypothesis and the geologic evidence and climate models that back it up, as well as some of the major lingering questions: Just how snowy is the snowball? How could this start? How could it end? And how did life fare on a frozen planet? In the news: ancient tardigrades, meat-eating sloths, shark communities, and relict mangroves. Time markers:Intro & Announcements: 00:00:00News: 00:04:30Main discussion, Part 1: 00:32:30Main discussion, Part 2: 01:02:00Patron question: 01:44:00 Check out our blog for bonus info and pictures:http://commondescentpodcast.wordpress.com/ Join us on Patreon to support the podcast and enjoy bonus content! https://www.patreon.com/commondescentpodcast Or make a one-time donation via PayPal: https://tinyurl.com/4c68u4hp Find merch at the Common Descent Store! http://zazzle.com/common_descent Follow and Support us on: Twitter: https://twitter.com/CommonDescentPCFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/commondescentpodcastInstagram: @commondescentpodcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCePRXHEnZmTGum2r1l2mduwPodBean: https://commondescentpodcast.podbean.com/ iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-common-descent-podcast/id1207586509?mt=2 The Intro and Outro music is “On the Origin of Species” by Protodome. More music like this at http://ocremix.org. Musical Interludes are "Professor Umlaut" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to the Common Descent Podcast.
0:18.5	Hello, Will.
0:19.6	Hello, David.
0:20.5	Hello, listeners, and welcome to the Common Descent podcast, episode 124.
0:27.1	This is a podcast about paleontology, evolution, and earth history, and today, our main topic is Snowball Earth.
0:35.3	Snowball Earth, if you are unfamiliar, is a hypothesis that proposes the existence of an extreme
0:43.0	ice age.
0:44.7	An ice age so extreme, in fact, that it covered almost all, or depending on what model
0:50.7	you're looking at, all of the planet Earth in ice.
0:56.5	Snowball Earth is one of those where, like, typically when you hear the title for a hypothesis,
1:01.6	there's a lot of times where it's not, if you take the title at face value, it could be misleading.
1:06.8	Right.
1:07.2	You know, towards, all right, well, that's not actually what it means.
1:10.9	Right.
1:11.0	Like the Big Bang.
1:11.7	Yeah, like the Big Bang.
1:12.5	It's not really a bang.
1:13.5	Not really a Big Bang.
1:14.8	It's the titty title that got placed with it.
1:18.4	Snowball Earth sounds like one of those titles.
1:20.7	Yeah.
1:21.1	Like.
	...

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