Journal
GEOLOGY
Volume 42, Issue 9, Pages 739-742Publisher
GEOLOGICAL SOC AMER, INC
DOI: 10.1130/G35637.1
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Funding
- DEFRA Ocean Acidification Programme
- Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) [IP-12751111]
- NERC [NE/F021313/1]
- NERC [NE/F021313/1, NE/H017356/1, nigl010001, NE/H017291/1, NE/H017518/1] Funding Source: UKRI
- Natural Environment Research Council [NE/F021313/1, NE/H017518/1, NE/H017356/1, nigl010001, NE/H017291/1] Funding Source: researchfish
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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 (delta O-18) of single specimens of exceptionally well-preserved planktonic foraminifera from the PETM in Tanzania (similar to 19 degrees S paleolatitude), which yield extremely low delta O-18, down to <-5%. After accounting for changes in seawater chemistry and pH, we estimate from the foraminifer delta O-18 that tropical SSTs rose by >3 degrees C during the PETM and may have exceeded 40 degrees C. Calcareous plankton are absent from a large part of the Tanzania PETM record; extreme environmental change may have temporarily caused foraminiferal exclusion.
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