700 million years ago, Earth was a snowball. Its lands were converged into a supercontinent which was hidden a mile underneath the ice. Ocean surfaces were frozen allowing only simple bacterial life to exist. It was a baron world you would never recognize as our own..but then came fire.
Violent volcanos erupted from underneath these ice sheets over the course of millions of years, with it releasing massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. As more CO2 poured out of the Earth, a runaway greenhouse effect warmed the surface of the sea to more than 120 degrees. The ice melted.
With this constant cycle of melting ice and erupting lava, a flood of nutrients were liberated from the depths of the Earth. These nutrients gave way to the rise of algae which would eventually lead to the evolution of complex life. The first multicellular animals rose out of the ash....and from this dance of ice and fire, we are born.
This photograph was shot in May of 2021 during the Icelandic volcanic eruption of Fagradalsfjall which gave us a rare modern glimpse into the chaotic beauty that led to our existence.
