Clay hydroxyl isotopes show an enhanced hydrologic cycle during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum

Gregory L. Walters (), Simon J. Kemp, Jordon D. Hemingway, David T. Johnston and David A. Hodell
Additional contact information
Gregory L. Walters: University of Cambridge
Simon J. Kemp: Environmental Science Centre, Nicker Hill, Keyworth
Jordon D. Hemingway: Harvard University
David T. Johnston: Harvard University
David A. Hodell: University of Cambridge

Nature Communications, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) was an abrupt global warming event associated with a large injection of carbon into the ocean-atmosphere system, as evidenced by a diagnostic carbon isotope excursion (CIE). Evidence also suggests substantial hydrologic perturbations, but details have been hampered by a lack of appropriate proxies. To address this shortcoming, here we isolate and measure the isotopic composition of hydroxyl groups (OH−) in clay minerals from a highly expanded PETM section in the North Sea Basin, together with their bulk oxygen isotope composition. At this location, we show that hydroxyl O- and H-isotopes are less influenced than bulk values by clay compositional changes due to mixing and/or inherited signals and thus better track hydrologic variability. We find that clay OH− hydrogen-isotope values (δ2HOH) decrease slowly prior to the PETM and then abruptly by ∼8‰ at the CIE onset. Coincident with an increase in relative kaolinite content, this indicates increased rainfall and weathering and implies an enhanced hydrologic cycle response to global warming, particularly during the early stages of the PETM. Subsequently, δ2HOH returns to pre-PETM values well before the end of the CIE, suggesting hydrologic changes in the North Sea were short-lived relative to carbon-cycle perturbations.

Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35545-2 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-35545-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-35545-2

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().