History of the Earth

The end of the Proterozoic saw at least two Snowball Earths, so severe that the surface of the oceans may have been completely frozen. This happened about 710 and 640 Ma, in the Cryogenian period. These severe glaciations are less easy to explain than the early Proterozoic Snowball Earth. Most paleoclimatologists think the cold episodes had something to do with the formation of the supercontinent Rodinia. Because Rodinia was centered on the equator, rates of chemical weathering increased and carbon dioxide (CO₂) was taken from the atmosphere. Because CO₂ is an important greenhouse gas, climates cooled globally.
In the same way, during the Snowball Earths most of the continental surface was in permafrost, which decreased chemical weathering again, leading to the end of the glaciations. An alternative hypothesis is that enough carbon dioxide escaped through volcanic outgassing that the resulting greenhouse effect raised global temperatures.^[55] Increased volcanic activity resulted from the break-up of Rodinia at about the same time.
The Cryogenian period was followed by the Ediacaran period, which was characterized by a rapid development of new multicellular lifeforms. Whether there is a connection between the end of the severe ice ages and the increase in diversity of life is not clear, but it does not seem coincidental.