A negative fold test on the Lorrain Formation of the Huronian Supergroup: Uncertainty on the paleolatitude of the Paleoproterozoic Gowganda glaciation and implications for the great oxygenation event

Comparison of the lithostratigraphic, paleomagnetic, and radiometric constraints on the Huronian sequence and the Transvaal Supergroup of Southern Africa implies that the one verified low-latitude Paleoproterozoic glacial event (the Makganyene glaciation, Transvaal Supergroup, South Africa) is younger than the three glacial units of Canada. With this correlation, the physical rock record indicates that the 'great oxygenation event' began in the time interval between the Gowganda and Makganyene glaciations. These data are consistent with the sudden evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis destroying a methane greenhouse and thereby triggering the first Snowball Earth event in Earth history.