+ NASA HOME +ASTROBIOLOGY PORTAL +MY ASTRO Advanced Search ... Hot Topic Solar System Earth Climate Tropical Glaciers Tropical Glaciers Based on a Penn State University press release Climate Posted: 06/01/01 Summary: Glacial deposits that formed on tropical land areas during snowball Earth episodes around 600 million years ago, lead to questions about how the glaciers that left the deposits were created. Now, Penn State geoscientists believe that these glaciers could only have formed after the Earth's oceans were entirely covered by thick sea ice. Tropical Glaciers The the Qori Kalis Glacier, Peru, in 1978 (top) and the same view in 2000, with a 10-acre lake forming at the ice margin. Today tropical glaciers exist only at the highest elevations. These glaciers, however, are in decline Credit: Nature Glacial deposits that formed on tropical land areas during snowball Earth episodes around 600 million years ago, lead to questions about how the glaciers that left the deposits were created. Now, Penn State geoscientists believe that these glaciers could only have formed after the Earth's oceans were entirely covered by thick sea ice. "There is strong geologic evidence of tropical glaciation at sea level during those times," Dr. David Pollard, research associate, Penn State College of Earth and Mineral Sciences' Environmental Institute, told attendees at the spring meeting of the | |
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