Mirovia

Mirovia or Mirovoi (from Russian мировой, mirovoy, meaning "global") was a hypothesized superocean which may have been a global ocean surrounding the supercontinent Rodinia in the Neoproterozoic Era, about 1 billion to 750 million years ago.[1] 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 by subduction at the expense of the global Mirovia ocean.[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 km. This is part of the Snowball Earth hypothesis.[3]

  1. ^ McMenamin, Mark A.; McMenamin, Dianna L. (1990). "The Rifting of Rodinia". The Emergence of Animals. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-06647-1.
  2. ^ Powell, Christopher McA; 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. Archived from the original on 2011-08-09. Retrieved 2007-07-10.
  3. ^ Dutkiewicz, A.; Merdith, A. S.; Collins, A. S.; Mather, B.; Ilano, L.; Zahirovic, S.; Dietmar Müller, R. (2024). "Duration of Sturtian 'Snowball Earth' glaciation linked to exceptionally low mid-ocean ridge outgassing". Geology. doi:10.1130/G51669.1. hdl:2440/140615.