Glaciers are some of our planet’s oldest inhabitants, but during several icy periods, they covered much more of Earth’s surface. Now scientists have found evidence of the oldest glacier ever in South Africa and it’s raising new questions about our planet’s ice ages.
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Glaciers are some of our planet's oldest inhabitants.
00:07But during several icy periods throughout history, they covered much more of Earth's surface.
00:11Now scientists have found evidence of the oldest glacier ever in South Africa,
00:15and it's raising new questions about our planet's ice ages.
00:18What researchers found were rocks impregnated with oxygen isotopes,
00:22discovered under one of the world's biggest gold deposits.
00:25These glacial deposits were then dated in a lab,
00:27with researchers saying they're likely from around 2.9 billion years ago.
00:31And they say this could change the way geologists look at our planet's historical freezing periods.
00:36The researchers explained this new evidence could mean there was another previously undiscovered ice age for our planet.
00:41Experts have deduced there were likely two ice ages in the past,
00:44both taking place within the last 650 to 700 million years.
00:48This one would predate those substantially.
00:50They also admit that way back then the continent that is now South Africa
00:53could have been situated somewhere closer to the poles,
00:56meaning no global cooling event, but rather it was simply located in a cooler spot on the planet.
01:02there was an order ofatti hourly.
01:03In this particular case.
01:04Several places have moved onto earthquakes.
01:05Here is some of the markets.
01:06WILL THE HAND CHANCES
01:14Per
01:18.
01:19say
01:23in the maybe