Termination of global warmth at the Palaeocene/Eocene boundary through productivity feedback

Santo Bains (), Richard D. Norris, Richard M. Corfield and Kristina L. Faul
Additional contact information
Santo Bains: Parks Road, University of Oxford
Richard D. Norris: Department of Geology and Geophysics Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Richard M. Corfield: Parks Road, University of Oxford
Kristina L. Faul: University of California

Nature, 2000, vol. 407, issue 6801, 171-174

Abstract: Abstract The onset of the Palaeocene/Eocene thermal maximum (about 55 Myr ago) was marked by global surface temperatures warming by 5–7 °C over approximately 30,000 yr (ref. 1), probably because of enhanced mantle outgassing2,3 and the pulsed release of ∼1,500 gigatonnes of methane carbon from decomposing gas-hydrate reservoirs4,5,6,7. The aftermath of this rapid, intense and global warming event may be the best example in the geological record of the response of the Earth to high atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and high temperatures. This response has been suggested to include an intensified flux of organic carbon from the ocean surface to the deep ocean and its subsequent burial through biogeochemical feedback mechanisms8. Here we present firm evidence for this view from two ocean drilling cores, which record the largest accumulation rates of biogenic barium—indicative of export palaeoproductivity—at times of maximum global temperatures and peak excursion values of δ13C. The unusually rapid return of δ13C to values similar to those before the methane release7 and the apparent coupling of the accumulation rates of biogenic barium to temperature, suggests that the enhanced deposition of organic matter to the deep sea may have efficiently cooled this greenhouse climate by the rapid removal of excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Date: 2000
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/35025035 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:nature:v:407:y:2000:i:6801:d:10.1038_35025035

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

DOI: 10.1038/35025035

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

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