8 ms·

Pictures of Earth 750 million years ago to the present

47 points by japaget 15y ago

greyfade 15y ago
The cloud layer on each depiction is distracting - they used the same cloud cover data from a modern year for all 30 samples. This would be much better with either no cloud cover at all or (if our climate models are good enough) realistically-modeled cloud cover for the land masses of the day.
- jofer 15y ago
  For what it's worth, the paleogeographic maps themselves are Ron Blakey's work. The original paleogeographic maps don't have the cloud cover. Older versions (and some additional info) are available at his NAU website here: http://www2.nau.edu/rcb7/ http://www2.nau.edu/rcb7/ and newer versions are his company's website: http://cpgeosystems.com/paleomaps.html http://cpgeosystems.com/paleomaps.html
- dhughes 15y ago
  I'm curious if atmospheric conditions were taken into account such as oxygen content, solar energy, saline content and whatever else would have affected the weather.
jsmcgd 15y ago
Interesting. Personally I was disappointed there was no snowball earth. Granted, I can imagine what it might look like but it would have been fun to see the contrast.
- StuffMaster 15y ago
  That may have been more than 750 million years ago.
iwwr 15y ago
During those times, land was a barren desert. No soil, no crawling things, no plants, just barren sand and rock. If you left an apple out in the dirt, it would grow no mold and probably just dry out. It's hard to imagine a world like that.
- sigzero 15y ago
  But imagine it you would have to. You can only speculate what it was like anyway.
- rglovejoy 15y ago
  If you went back in time to that era with an apple from 2011, it would still have bacteria and fungi on its surface and inside. The rotting might be slowed by a possible higher intensity of ultraviolet light from the Sun, which would kill any microbes on the surface.
  - throwaway32 15y ago
    What i have always found fascinating is how the biology of macroscopically large beings is so intimately intertwined at so many levels with that of the microscopic. For instance, the average human contains/carries 10x more nonhuman cells than human ones.
    - sosuke 15y ago
      Do you have a source for the nonhuman cell count? That would be an excellent water cooler topic to read up on.
      - throwaway32 15y ago
        I managed to find this http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/dec96/840131722.Dv.r.html http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/dec96/840131722.Dv.r.ht... but unfortunately it also does not cite a source :)
      - nitrogen 15y ago

47 points by japaget 15y ago

The cloud layer on each depiction is distracting - they used the same cloud cover data from a modern year for all 30 samples. This would be much better with either no cloud cover at all or (if our climate models are good enough) realistically-modeled cloud cover for the land masses of the day.

jofer 15y ago
For what it's worth, the paleogeographic maps themselves are Ron Blakey's work. The original paleogeographic maps don't have the cloud cover. Older versions (and some additional info) are available at his NAU website here: http://www2.nau.edu/rcb7/ http://www2.nau.edu/rcb7/ and newer versions are his company's website: http://cpgeosystems.com/paleomaps.html http://cpgeosystems.com/paleomaps.html
dhughes 15y ago
I'm curious if atmospheric conditions were taken into account such as oxygen content, solar energy, saline content and whatever else would have affected the weather.

jsmcgd 15y ago

Interesting. Personally I was disappointed there was no snowball earth. Granted, I can imagine what it might look like but it would have been fun to see the contrast.

StuffMaster 15y ago
That may have been more than 750 million years ago.

iwwr 15y ago

During those times, land was a barren desert. No soil, no crawling things, no plants, just barren sand and rock. If you left an apple out in the dirt, it would grow no mold and probably just dry out. It's hard to imagine a world like that.

sigzero 15y ago
But imagine it you would have to. You can only speculate what it was like anyway.
rglovejoy 15y ago
If you went back in time to that era with an apple from 2011, it would still have bacteria and fungi on its surface and inside. The rotting might be slowed by a possible higher intensity of ultraviolet light from the Sun, which would kill any microbes on the surface.
- throwaway32 15y ago
  What i have always found fascinating is how the biology of macroscopically large beings is so intimately intertwined at so many levels with that of the microscopic. For instance, the average human contains/carries 10x more nonhuman cells than human ones.
  - sosuke 15y ago
    Do you have a source for the nonhuman cell count? That would be an excellent water cooler topic to read up on.
    - throwaway32 15y ago
      I managed to find this http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/dec96/840131722.Dv.r.html http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/dec96/840131722.Dv.r.ht... but unfortunately it also does not cite a source :)
    - nitrogen 15y ago