The Laurentian Neoproterozoic Glacial Interval: reappraising the extent and timing of glaciation

One of the major issues in Neoproterozoic geology is the extent to which glaciations in the Cryogenian and Ediacaran periods were global in extent and synchronous or regional in extent and diachronous. A similarly outstanding concern is determining whether deposits are truly glacial, as opposed to gravitationally initiated mass flow deposits in the context of a rifting Rodinia supercontinent. In this paper, we present 115 publically available, quality-filtered chronostratigraphic constraints on the age and duration of Neoproterozoic glacial successions, and compare their palaeocontinental distribution. Depositional ages from North America (Laurentia) clearly support the idea of a substantial glacial epoch between about 720-660 Ma on this palaeocontinent but paradoxically, the majority of Australian glacial strata plot outside the previously proposed global time band for the eponymous Sturtian glaciation, with new dates from China also plotting in a time window previously thought to be an interglacial. For the early Cryogenian, the data permit either a short, sharp 2.4 Ma long global glaciation, or diachronous shifting of ice centres across the Rodinia palaeocontinent, implying regional rather than global ice covers and asynchronous glacial cycles. Thus, based on careful consideration of age constraints, we suggest that strata deposited in the ca. 720-660 Ma window in North America are better described as belonging to a Laurentian Neoproterozoic Glacial Interval (LNGI), given that use of the term Sturtian for a major Neoproterozoic glacial epoch can clearly no longer be justified. This finding is of fundamental importance for reconstructing the Neoproterozoic climate system because chronological constraints do not support the concept of a synchronous panglacial Snowball Earth. Diachroneity of the glacial record reflects underlying palaeotectonic and palaeogeographic controls on the timing of glaciation resulting from the progressive breakup of the Rodinian supercontinent.