Long before complex life crawled from the oceans to make itself at home on dry land, Earth endured an ice age like no other.
On two separate occasions, fingers of ice stretched far from the poles, turning the planet into a frozen wasteland.the runaway deep freeze extended across all latitudes, completely coating Earth in a thick coat of ice as far as the equator.
from the extreme cold as volcanoes belched out carbon dioxide was soon followed by a second chill around 650 million years ago, now dubbed the Marinoan glaciation. As far as evidence of exposed ocean during the Marinoan glaciation goes, questionable fossils of macroscopic algae leave plenty of room for debate.
Putting the results into context provided by numerous other studies, it appears at least some of the planet's surface was ice-clear towards the close of the Marinoan, providing a warm oasis for photosynthesizing organisms.
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