Glaciers once inched toward the sea, gouging rocks. When the ice masses melted, they infused oceans with nutrients that may have shaped how life evolved, a study found.

Around 700 million years ago, Earth was a very different planet—gripped by extreme deep freezes during the Cryogenian period. Enormous glaciers, kilometers thick, stretched across vast regions, turning much of the planet into a frozen wasteland.

During the Cryogenian, our planet was plunged into a series of deep freezes when enormous glaciers flowed across the globe. In new research published in Geology, we show that these crushing rivers of ice,

Glaciers once inched toward the sea, gouging rocks. When the ice masses melted, they infused oceans with nutrients that may have shaped how life evolved, a study found.