The Snowball Earth

17 11 2006

For many years, scientists stumbled upon evidence that even the tropics were covered with a thick layer of ice six hundred million years ago. All of this evidence of a so-called Snow Ball Earth was dismissed with the simple argument that the drifting of the continents through geological ages should explain such a phenomena.

This 2001 BBC Horizon documentary shows the evidences for the theory and how life - by the time only cyan bacteria and algae - could survive under such harsh conditions.

Although a great number of objections have been raised against the theory, there are still a number of scientists who agree some level of “snowball earth” effect occurred on the geological time covered.

Simple yet objective, the theories are explained with humor and a competent footage, and, although the scientists don’t agree yet about the theme, it’s a decent insight in how science is made and how the scientific process work.

Total Time: 50 minutes.

Recommendation: Good.  :) :) :)