Mirovia

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Mirovia (from Russian мировой, mirovoy, meaning "global") was an hypothesized paleo-ocean which may have been a global ocean that surrounded the supercontinent Rodinia in the Neoproterozoic Era, about 1 billion to 750 million years ago.^[1] The Mirovia may be essentially identical to, or the precursor of, the hypothesized Pan-African Ocean which followed the rifting of Rodinia. The Panthalassa (proto-Pacific Ocean) developed in the Neoproterozoic Era at the expense by subduction of the global Mirovia.^[2]

Geologic evidence suggests that the middle Neoproterozoic, the Cryogenian period, was an extreme ice age so intense that Mirovia may have been completely frozen to a depth of 2 kilometres. This is the Snowball Earth hypothesis.

[edit] References

1. ^ McMenamin, Mark A.; Dianna L. McMenamin (1990) “The Rifting of Rodina” in The Emergence of Animals, Columbia University Press, ISBN 0-231-06647-3
2. ^ Powell, Christopher McA and Pisarevsky, Sergei A., RODINIA TO GONDWANALAND: GROWTH OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN AND DESTRUCTION OF THE MOZAMBIQUE AND BRAZILIDE OCEANS, GSA Conference, Earth System Processes - Global Meeting (June 24-28, 2001), abstract http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2001ESP/finalprogram/abstract_8026.htm

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