Up-and-coming rock star, Joan Devintia, has come to realize that some shadows aren't benign, some stares aren't innocent, and she is no longer safe. Tired of fearing her stalker, she goes to her manager for a solution. He hires Carmen Savedra - celebrity bodyguard and inactive duty Marine - to protect the singer from harm. In the midst of recording her pioneer album, Joan finds temptation in the form of illicit drugs and danger taking the shape of a man in a red tie. Safety comes with the sound of jingling dog tags that Carmen never takes off. Carmen's shadow is bigger and more imposing than Joan's stalker. Her stare is more meaningful. Unless Joan can face her fears off the stage - her career, her growing relationship with Carmen - her very life could end....
20 font size. Snowball Earth is the first of three books about the end of our present ice age. The Earth cools down very fast, and life becomes more of a struggle. Plans are made for human survival, in stasis vats on earth and in colonies in space... What will happen to the Waters family? Mum is expecting a baby, and babies can't go into stasis until they are 2 years old. Sheila and Jack the two children aren't sure about what is to happen, and if the plans are good enough for them to return to the Earth many years in the future.
The continuity of life evolution over 3.5 billion years has been attributed to Earth's ability to maintain a habitable climate. However, the Neoproterozoic era was interrupted by multiple Snowball Earth episodes when the silicate weathering thermostat broke down and global-scale glaciations ensued. It remains a major challenge to explain how life has survived these severe glaciations, which depends critically on the surface temperature. The work presented in this thesis contains a series of modeling endeavors dedicated to advancing our understanding of the temperature history during the Snowball Earth events. With an energy balance model, we demonstrate that the critical phase for life is the early stage of Snowball, when surface temperature has plunged after the initiation. Using the FOAM GCM specially modified for the Snowball climate, we investigate the peculiar hydrological cycle of a Snowball state. With an idealized ice shell model, we study how the global-scale ice flow may act as a dust conveyor belt and escalate dust accumulation in the tropical ablation zone. We then explore the stability of the dusty Snowball state in a coupled atmosphere-ice-dust model. We propose a dust thermostat mechanism based on the coupled model simulations of the dusty ice scenario, which suggests that the Snowball Earth might have been much warmer than previously thought.
The work presented in this thesis contains a series of modeling endeavors dedicated to advancing our understanding of the temperature history during the Snowball Earth events.
The Story of the Global Catastrophe That Spawned Life As We Know It
Did the Earth once undergo a super ice age, one that froze the entire planet? A global adventure story and a fascinating account of scientist Paul Hoffman's quest to prove his maverick 'Snowball Earth' theory, this is science writing at its most gripping. In SNOWBALL EARTH, Gabrielle Walker takes us on a thrilling natural history expedition in search of supporting evidence for the audacious theory which argues that the Earth experienced a climatic cataclysm 600 million years ago that froze the entire planet from the poles to the equator. Because the global snowball happened so long ago the ice has now long gone - but it left its traces in rocks around the world and in order to see the evidence, Walker visited such places as Australia, Namibia, South Africa and Death Valley, USA. Part adventure story and part travel book, it's a tale of the ultimate human endeavour to understand our origins.
A global adventure story and a fascinating account of scientist Paul Hoffman's quest to prove his maverick 'Snowball Earth' theory, this is science writing at its most gripping.
