The snowball Earth's (both of them) were caused by excess serpentine weathering. Serpentine is one of the most common minerals in the Earth's crust — like 80% of it. The serpentine is covered in limestone (and other things) which prevents warm-saline erosion of the serpentine, directly. If you look at the tailings from the coal mines in the TVA, you could "just" ship those tailings to the Gulf coast (using the old train systems) and cause a major glacial period, quite quickly, by grinding up the tailings & dumping them in a mile wide strip from Corpus Christi to Miami.
> Serpentine is one of the most common minerals in the Earth's crust — like 80% of it.
Serpentines are common but they do not make up 80% of the crust. Feldspars are the most common minerals in the crust and they make up less than 60% of it [1].
JumpCrisscross|2 years ago
Lots of them [1]. (No free lunch, though. Oceans absorbing carbon makes them acidic.)
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_sink
thechao|2 years ago
akiselev|2 years ago
Serpentines are common but they do not make up 80% of the crust. Feldspars are the most common minerals in the crust and they make up less than 60% of it [1].
[1] https://deq.nc.gov/energy-mineral-and-land-resources/geologi...