The low-latitude Rapitan glaciation (Invited)

The snowball Earth hypothesis1 was developed in response to strong palaeomagnetic evidence for low-latitude glaciation from “Marinoan” glacial deposits in the Elatina Formation of Australia. An earlier Cryogenian glaciation, commonly referred to as the “Sturtian” glaciation, has been inferred from the ubiquity of pre-Marinoan glacial deposits; however, the synchroneity and global extent of this event have been questioned due to the lack of precise U/Pb ages and robust paleomagnetic data. Herein we provide new age constraints on the Franklin LIP with revised U/Pb ID-TIMS dates on the the Mt. Harper volcanic complex in the Yukon Territory and the Coronation sills of Victoria Island. Furthermore we present a new age from a tuff interbedded with diamictite in the Upper Mt. Harper Group. A glaciogenic origin of the diamictites is provided by striated clasts and laminae-penetrating dropstones. These glacial deposits can be traced from Alaska westward through the Yukon Territory and into the Northwest Territories, and are correlative to the Rapitan Group. Throughout the Cordillera, the Rapitan Group and its correlatives commonly host iron formation, are the lower of two Cryogenian glacial horizons, and globally are thought to be equivalent to the Sturtian glaciation. The age of the tuff interbedded with the glacial deposits in the Mt. Harper Group is within 1 million years of the revised age on the Franklin LIP. Several paleomagnetic studies on dikes, sills, and basalts spanning >2000 km of NW Canada have agreed that the Franklin LIP erupted when NW Laurentia was in an equatorial position2,3. Consequently, the Sturtian glaciation on Laurentia can now be confidently inferred to have occurred at a very low palaeolatitude. Thus, there were at least two Cryogenian glaciations of global extent. 1 Kirschvink, J.L., in The Proterozoic Biosphere, edited by J. W. Schopf and C. Klein (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1992), pp. 51. 2 Park, J.K., Paleomagnetic constraints on the position of Laurentia from middle Neoproterozoic to Early Cambrian times. Precambrian Research 69, 95 (1994). 3 Evans, D.A.D., Stratigraphic, geochronological, and paleomagnetic constraints upon the Neoproterozoic climatic paradox. American Journal of Science 300, 347 (2000).