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LiveScience
LiveScience
Sascha Pare

Lava outburst 3 times the size of Texas may have triggered Snowball Earth 717 million years ago

Lava rocks are particularly susceptive to a chemical reaction that sucks CO2 out of the atmosphere. (Image credit: Ernir Eyjolfsson/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Devastating volcanic eruptions may have been so enormous they turned the planet into "Snowball Earth" 717 million years ago, a study has found.

The volcanic outburst — one of the largest in Earth's history — likely triggered a series of chemical reactions that sucked carbon dioxide (CO2) from Earth's ancient atmosphere.

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