Extreme warming of tropical waters during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum

Aze, T., Pearson, P. N. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4628-9818, Dickson, A. J., Badger, M. P. S., Bown, P. R., Pancost, R. D., Gibbs, S. J., Huber, B. T., Leng, M. J., Coe, A. L., Cohen, A. S. and Foster, G. L. 2014. Extreme warming of tropical waters during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. Geology 42 (9) , pp. 739-742. 10.1130/G35637.1

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Abstract

The Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), ca. 56 Ma, was a major global environmental perturbation attributed to a rapid rise in the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Geochemical records of tropical sea-surface temperatures (SSTs) from the PETM are rare and are typically affected by post-depositional diagenesis. To circumvent this issue, we have analyzed oxygen isotope ratios (δ18O) of single specimens of exceptionally well-preserved planktonic foraminifera from the PETM in Tanzania (∼19°S paleolatitude), which yield extremely low δ18O, down to <–5‰. After accounting for changes in seawater chemistry and pH, we estimate from the foraminifer δ18O that tropical SSTs rose by >3 °C during the PETM and may have exceeded 40 °C. Calcareous plankton are absent from a large part of the Tanzania PETM record; extreme environmental change may have temporarily caused foraminiferal exclusion.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Earth and Environmental Sciences
Additional Information:	This paper is published under the terms of the CC-BY licence
Publisher:	Geological Society of America
ISSN:	0091-7613
Funders:	NERC
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	30 March 2016
Date of Acceptance:	3 June 2014
Last Modified:	16 May 2023 23:49
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/65239

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