Rodinia

The extreme cooling of the global climate around 717–635 Ma (the so-called Snowball Earth of the Cryogenian period) and the rapid evolution of primitive life during the subsequent Ediacaran and Cambrian periods are thought to have been triggered by the breaking up of Rodinia or to a slowing down of tectonic processes.

Piper, Rodinia is one of two models for the configuration and history of the continental crust in the latter part of Precambrian times.

[8] This latter solution predicts that break-up was confined to the Ediacaran period and produced the dramatic environmental changes that characterised the transition between the Precambrian and Phanerozoic.

Extensive lava flows and volcanic eruptions of Neoproterozoic age are found on most continents, evidence for large scale rifting about 750 Ma.

[1] As early as 850 to 800 Ma,[18] a rift developed between the continental masses of present-day Australia, East Antarctica, India and the Congo and Kalahari cratons on one side and later Laurentia, Baltica, Amazonia and the West African and Rio de la Plata cratons on the other.

Because the timeframe of this separation and the partially contemporaneous Pan-African orogeny are difficult to correlate, it might be that all continental mass was again joined in one supercontinent between roughly 600 and 550 Ma.

Based on sedimentary rock analysis, Rodinia's formation happened when the ozone layer was not as extensive as it is now.

This rising creates areas of higher altitude where the air is cooler and ice is less likely to melt with changes in season, and it may explain the evidence of abundant glaciation in the Ediacaran.

In periods with relatively large areas of new lithosphere, the ocean floors come up, causing the sea level to rise.

By inputting data on the ratio of stable isotopes 18O:16O[failed verification] into computer models, it has been shown that in conjunction with quick weathering of volcanic rock, the increased rainfall may have reduced greenhouse gas levels to below the threshold required to trigger the period of extreme glaciation known as Snowball Earth.