Fig. 4: Patterns of inorganic carbonate formation induced by ocean warming and biological activity after a snowball Earth.

a The mean sea-surface temperature (SST) averaged over the full 5000 years from the start of the deglaciation, overlain by contour lines of relative carbonate formation as simulated with the ICON-ESM simulation Exp. 3.2. The black dots indicate the location of actual Marinoan cap dolostones (data from ref. ³⁶), and the area of the dots is proportional to the thickness of the cap dolostone formation. b Zonal averages of the data in (a). c Annual carbonate formation rates (blue lines) for the reconstructions of the carbonate chemistry model with ocean pCO₂ = 13, 200 ppm at the start of the deglaciation. The black lines show the rise in atmospheric CO₂ corresponding to the carbonate formation in the reconstructions. The grey line represents the evolution of atmospheric CO₂ when no carbonate is formed.