Huronian glaciation

The Huronian glaciation was a glaciation that extended from 2.4 billion years ago to 2.1 Gya, during the Siderian and Rhyacian periods of the Paleoproterozoic era. The Huronian glaciation followed the Great Oxygenation Event, a time when increased atmospheric oxygen decreased atmospheric methane. Occurred: 2,500 million years ago - 1,400 million years ago

The Huronian glaciation (or Makganyene glaciation) was a glaciation that extended from 2.4 billion years ago (Gya) to 2.1 Gya, during the Siderian and Rhyacian periods of the Paleoproterozoic era. The Huronian glaciation followed the Great Oxygenation Event (GOE), a time when increased atmospheric oxygen decreased atmospheric methane. The oxygen combined with the methane to form carbon dioxide and water, which do not retain heat as well as methane does.

It is the oldest and longest ice age, occurring at a time when only simple, unicellular life existed on Earth. This ice age led to a mass extinction on Earth.

Arthur Philemon Coleman first described the geological formations, and their origin in a A lower Huronian ice age in a 1907 article for the American Journal of Science.

This geological formation, in the geographic area of Lake Huron, consists of two non-glacial sediment deposits found between three horizons of glacial deposits of the Huronian Supergroup, deposited between 2.5 and 2.2 billion years ago.