enhanced terrestrial weathering runoff and surface ocean carbonate production during the recovery stages of the paleocene eocene thermal maximum 1 the carbonate saturation profile of the oceans shoaled markedly during a transient global warming event known as the paleocene eocene thermal maximum petm circa 55 ma the rapid release of large quantities of carbon into the ocean atmosphere system is believed to have triggered this intense episode of dissolution along with a negative carbon isotope excursion cie the brevity 120 220 kyr of the petm reflects the rapid enhancement of negative feedback mechanisms within earth s exogenic carbon cycle that served the dual function of buffering ocean ph and reducing atmospheric greenhouse gas levels detailed study of the petm stratigraphy from ocean drilling program site 690 weddell sea reveals that the cie recovery period which postdates the cie onset by 80 kyr is represented by an expanded 2 5 m thick interval containing a unique planktic foraminiferal assemblage strongly diluted by coccolithophore carbonate collectively the micropaleontological and sedimentological changes preserved within the cie recovery interval reflect a transient state when ocean atmosphere chemistry fostered prolific coccolithophore blooms that suppressed the local lysocline to relatively deeper depths a prominent peak in the abundance of the clay mineral kaolinite is associated with the cie recovery interval indicating that continental weathering runoff intensified at this time as well robert and kennett 1994 such parallel stratigraphic changes are generally consonant with the hypothesis that enhanced continental weathering runoff and carbonate precipitation helped sequester carbon during the petm recovery period e g dickens et al 1997 zachos et al 2005

reconstructing past seawater mg ca and sr ca from mid ocean ridge flank calcium carbonate veins proxies for past seawater chemistry such as mg ca and sr ca ratios provide a record of the dynamic exchanges of elements between the solid earth the atmosphere and the hydrosphere and the evolving influence of life we estimated past oceanic mg ca and sr ca ratios from suites of 1 6 to 170 million year old calcium carbonate veins that had precipitated from seawater derived fluids in ocean ridge flank basalts our data indicate that before the neogene oceanic mg ca and sr ca ratios were lower than in the modern ocean decreased ocean spreading since the cretaceous and the resulting slow reduction in ocean crustal hydrothermal exchange throughout the early tertiary may explain the recent rise in these ratios

reevaluation of the oxygen isotopic composition of planktonic foraminifera experimental results and revised paleotemperature equations cultured planktonic foraminifera orbulina universa symbiotic and globigerina bulloides nonsymbiotic are used to reexamine temperature 18o relationships at 15 25 c relationships for both species can be described by linear equations equations for o universa grown under low light ll and high light hl share a slope of 4 80 0 21 c 1 with a hl ll offset of 0 33 due to symbiont photosynthetic activity the effect of co32 on o universa is 0 002 mol 1 kg 1 and is insensitive to temperature for g bulloides ontogenetic effects produce size related trends in temperature 18o whereby larger shells are enriched in 18o relative to smaller specimens the o universa temperature 18o relationships are more accurate than previously published equations for describing plankton tow data our equations do not explain planktonic core top data with the same precision but provide a good fit to benthic cibicidoides data below 10 c temperature 18o relationships for g bulloides provide good agreement with field data for this species from the northeast pacific

microstructural and geochemical perspectives on planktic foraminiferal preservation glassy versus frosty in recent years it has become apparent that the cool tropic paradox of paleogene and cretaceous greenhouse climates arises because of the diagenetic alteration of tropical planktic foraminiferal calcite near the seafloor yielding artificially high 18o values because the mg ca compositions of foraminiferal and inorganic calcite are thought to be quite different mg ca measurements should be a sensitive way of monitoring diagenetic alteration here we examine the extent of diagenetic alteration of eocene planktic foraminiferal calcite using scanning electron microscope imaging of foraminiferal test microstructures and geochemical 18o and mg ca analyses we compare microstructural and geochemical characteristics between given species exhibiting two contrasting states of preservation those that appear frosty under reflected light and those that appear glassy microstructural evidence reveals extensive diagenetic alteration of frosty foraminiferal tests at the micron scale while 18o analyses document consistently higher 18o and therefore lower paleotemperatures in this material yet we find that 18o offsets between species in these frosty foraminiferal assemblages appear to be generally preserved suggesting that frosty foraminifera remain valuable for generating relatively short approximately 1 myr paleoceanographic time series that do not demand absolute estimates of paleotemperature we also find that the observed increase in mg ca for planktic foraminifera exhibiting diagenetic alteration compared to glassy taphonomies is far smaller than would be expected from the addition of inorganic calcite based on laboratory derived mg2 partition coefficients our findings imply that a much lower mg2 partition coefficient controls inorganic calcite formation in deep sea sedimentary sections in accordance with the findings of baker et al 1982

evidence for planetary wave effects on midlatitude backscatter and sporadic e layer occurrence in this paper a large database of midlatitude e region coherent backscatter obtained with a 50 mhz doppler system is used to investigate the long term variability in echo occurrence the backscatter is found to be dominated by pronounced quasi periodic variations with periods in the range from about 2 to 9 days that persist for time intervals from about 10 to maybe more than 20 days and have no relation to geomagnetic activity the most commonly observed periods appear in two preferential bands that is the 2 to 3 day and the 4 to 6 day band using concurrent ionosonde data we find the variations in backscatter to be exactly in phase with similar periodicities in the occurrence of relatively strong sporadic e layers the present findings support the possibility that planetary waves are responsible for the observed long term periodicities which indicates also a close relation between planetary waves and the well known but not well understood seasonal es dependence we suggest the planetary wave option constitutes a new component into the research of midlatitude sporadic e layer formation and occurrence that needs to be considered and closely investigated

high latitude e and f region coupling signature a case study results from rapid run ionosonde rapid run ionosonde installed in the high latitude sodankyla geophysical observatory enables us to observe for the first time extraordinary details of e f region coupling process in high latitude ionosphere during geomagnetically quiet period we present an example on 15 august 2009 when a dense patchy sporadic e layer was detected associated with this unstable sporadic e layer exhibiting in addition an unusual enhancement with a vertical extent of about 10 km the highly structured f layer plasma was observed with apparent plasma depletions we examine this event taking into account the presence of mesoscale traveling ionospheric disturbances which can initiate coupling between these two regions and compare the data with current theories

abrupt deep sea warming palaeoceanographic changes and benthic extinctions at the end of the palaeocene a remarkable oxygen and carbon isotope excursion occurred in antarctic waters near the end of the palaeocene 57 33 myr ago indicating rapid global warming and oceanographic changes that caused one of the largest deep sea benthic extinctions of the past 90 million years in contrast the oceanic plankton were largely unaffected implying a decoupling of the deep and shallow ecosystems the data suggest that for a few thousand years ocean circulation underwent fundamental changes producing a transient state that although brief had long term effects on environmental and biotic evolution

quasi periodic radar echoes from midlatitude sporadic e and role of the 5 day planetary wave using measurements of magnetic aspect sensitive radar echoes from midlatitude sporadic e collected over a two month period from tanegashima japan we show that while their occurrence duration from night to night did not exhibit any systematic variation that of the so called quasi periodic qp echoes varied sinusoidally with a period of 5 days we have interpreted this behavior in terms of effects produced by a planetary wave and identified its presence through neutral wind measurements made with a partial reflection drift radar located nearby at yamagawa we propose that the occurrence of qp echoes is affected both by a contribution of the wind to the dynamo electric field and by the direction of the neutral wind we argue that because the wind vector of the planetary wave is elliptically polarized at midlatitudes a preferred wind direction conducive to the generation of qp echoes occurs once every 5 days on the other hand this wave is linearly polarized and directed zonally over the geographic equator the fact that qp echoes are most fully developed at midlatitudes and less so at lower latitudes suggests that zonal flow is not particularly favorable for qp echo production

abrupt hydrographic changes in the equatorial pacific and subtropical atlantic from foraminiferal mg ca indicate greenhouse origin for the thermal maximum at the paleocene eocene boundary 1 the paleocene eocene boundary peb was marked by an extraordinary climatic event hypothesized to originate from a large perturbation to the carbon cycle which fueled global warming the rapid dissociation of oceanic methane hydrates the pattern of surface warming interpreted from existing sea surface temperature records is not consistent with a greenhouse origin for this event which would have fueled sea surface warming globally although oxygen isotope 18o based reconstructions indicate polar warming results for the tropics and subtropics are ambiguous because of uncertainties associated with interpreting planktonic foraminiferal 18o to remedy this we have constructed high resolution temperature records based on mg ca of multiple species of both surface and thermocline dwelling planktonic foraminifera across the peb in the equatorial pacific and subtropical atlantic during the carbon isotope excursion cie surface temperatures increased by 3 5 4 c and thermocline temperatures warmed by 3 c estimates of surface water and thermocline salinity based on paired mg ca and 18o data indicate a pattern of hydrographic changes in the equatorial and subtropical oceans that is different from previously proposed with a more vigorous hydrologic cycle during warming the pattern of warming and salinity changes are consistent with this being a greenhouse induced global warming event and the timing of hydrographic changes relative to the cie supports the hypothesis that gradual warming of intermediate deep waters triggered methane hydrate dissociation

meteor induced transient sporadic e as inferred from rapid run ionosonde observations at midlatitudes 1 observations were made with a rapid run ionosonde during a 1 month period from the end of july to the end of august 2002 that included the perseid meteor shower ionograms were obtained at 1 minute intervals all the echo traces below a virtual height of 200 km were hand scaled for detecting weak and broken traces as well as well determined sporadic e among the scaled e region traces a distinct meteor echo persisting for 40 min was observed this long duration meteor event was similar to that observed during the leonid meteor shower in 2001 however the apparent height of the echo traces in the current event first decreased and then increased after equaling the height of a persistent sporadic e layer while the apparent height of the long duration meteor echo trace observed in leonids 2001 remained nearly constant the descending rate of the meteor echo was approximately 22 m s which was considerably greater than that of the tidal ion layer trapped in a downward moving wind shear node we ascribe the long duration meteor echo to a transient and horizontally drifting sporadic e patch generated from meteor trail plasma

a model for calcium magnesium and sulfate in seawater over phanerozoic time a theoretical model has been constructed for calculating the concentrations of dissolved calcium magnesium and sulfate in seawater over the past 550 million years phanerozoic time it is demonstrated that the weathering of ca carbonates and silicates by carbonic acid can be generally ignored in the modeling a previous model of the carbon cycle is used to guide input to the oceans of mg from carbonate and silicate weathering by h 2 co 3 similarly a previous model of the sulfur cycle is used to guide input fluxes to the ocean by calcium sulfate weathering and the weathering of ca and mg carbonates and silicates by sulfuric acid the sulfuric acid is derived from the oxidation of pyrite during weathering plus the oxidation of sulfur gases derived from the metamorphic volcanic decomposition of pyrite and caso 4 calcium is removed from seawater as sedimentary carbonates and sulfates so 4 is removed as sedimentary pyrite and caso 4 and mg is removed by exchange for ca via basalt seawater reaction and or dolomitization plus minor burial in sediments with pyrite as anoxic dolomite by adjusting starting conditions modeling results can be found that agree well with results of studies of salt fluid inclusions for variations of ca and so 4 this is especially true of the timing when ca was more abundant in seawater than so 4 and vice versa general agreement was also found with fluid inclusion results for changes in the mg ca ratio thereby distinguishing calcite seas from aragonite seas because of this overall agreement the modeling offers a new perspective on why oceanic ca mg and so 4 have varied over phanerozoic time

deep time foraminifera mg ca paleothermometry nonlinear correction for secular change in seawater mg ca 1 the mg ca ratio of foraminifera tests is increasingly being utilized as a paleotemperature proxy deep time pre pleistocene mg ca paleothermometry is complicated by the fact that the mg ca ratio of seawater mg casw has undergone considerable secular variation over the cenozoic previous studies have corrected for this by assuming an invariant mg distribution coefficient dmg with mg casw more recent laboratory culturing has shown that this is not the case demonstrating that a power relationship best describes the variation in test mg ca mg catest with mg casw therefore previous corrections are likely to have led to inaccurate temperature reconstructions here we show how the systematics of such a correction should be applied and demonstrate why this provides good evidence that the mg ca ratio of paleogene seawater was lower than previously implied by foraminiferal constraints in agreement with the majority of the proxy mg casw evidence we also demonstrate how it is indirectly possible to constrain the value of h the power component of a mg catest mg casw calibration potentially enabling the appropriate correction of results derived from species where this relationship has not been calibrated however this technique should not be treated as a substitute for culturing the previous erroneous assumptions regarding both 1 the relationship between mg catest and mg caswand 2 the mg ca ratio of seawater at a given time in the past may counteract each other to differing extents as a result previous absolute pre pleistocene paleotemperature estimates derived from mg ca ratios in foraminifera should be treated with caution although relative temperature changes over short 1 ma timescales are likely to be reliable

on the duration of the paleocene eocene thermal maximum petm 1 the paleocene eocene thermal maximum petm is one of the best known examples of a transient climate perturbation associated with a brief but intense interval of global warming and a massive perturbation of the global carbon cycle from injection of isotopically light carbon into the ocean atmosphere system one key to quantifying the mass of carbon released identifying the source s and understanding the ultimate fate of this carbon is to develop high resolution age models two independent strategies have been employed cycle stratigraphy and analysis of extraterrestrial helium heet both of which were first tested on ocean drilling program odp site 690 these two methods are in agreement for the onset of the petm and initial recovery or the clay layer main body but seem to differ in the final recovery phase of the event above the clay layer where the carbonate contents rise and carbon isotope values return toward background values here we present a state of the art age model for the petm derived from a new orbital chronology developed with cycle stratigraphic records from sites drilled during odp leg 208 walvis ridge southeastern atlantic integrated with published records from site 690 weddell sea southern ocean odp leg 113 during leg 208 five paleocene eocene p e boundary sections sites 1262 to 1267 were recovered in multiple holes over a depth transect of more than 2200 m at the walvis ridge yielding the first stratigraphically complete p e deep sea sequence with moderate to relatively high sedimentation rates 1 to 3 cm ka where a is years a detailed chronology was developed with nondestructive x ray fluorescence xrf core scanning records on the scale of precession cycles with a total duration of the petm now estimated to be 170 ka the revised cycle stratigraphic record confirms original estimates for the duration of the onset and initial recovery but suggests a new duration for the final recovery that is intermediate to the previous estimates by cycle stratigraphy and heet

integrated stratigraphy of the paleocene eocene thermal maximum in the new jersey coastal plain toward understanding the effects of global warming in a shelf environment 1 in the new jersey coastal plain a silty to clayey sedimentary unit the marlboro formation represents deposition during the paleocene eocene thermal maximum petm this interval is remarkably different from the glauconitic sands and silts of the underlying paleocene vincentown and overlying eocene manasquan formation we integrate new and published stable isotope biostratigraphic lithostratigraphic and ecostratigraphic records constructing a detailed time frame for the petm along a depth gradient at core sites clayton wilson lake ancora and bass river updip to downdip the onset of the petm marked by the base of the carbon isotope excursion cie is within the gradual transition from glauconitic silty sands to silty clay and represented fully at the updip sites wilson lake and clayton the cie core interval is expanded at the updip sites but truncated the cie core is complete at the bass river and ancora sites where the early part of the recovery is present most complete at ancora the extent to which the petm is expressed in the sediments is highly variable between sites with a significant unconformity at the base of the overlying lower eocene sediments our regional correlation framework provides an improved age model allowing better understanding of the progression of environmental changes during the petm high resolution benthic foraminiferal data document the change from a sediment starved shelf setting to a tropical river dominated mud belt system during the petm probably due to intensification of the hydrologic cycle the excellent preservation of foraminifera during the petm and the lack of severe benthic extinction suggest there was no extreme ocean acidification in shelf settings

north american continental margin records of the paleocene eocene thermal maximum implications for global carbon and hydrological cycling the impacts of the paleocene eocene thermal maximum petm 55 ma one of the most rapid and extreme warming events in earth history are well characterized in open marine and terrestrial environments but are less so on continental margins a major carbon sink here we present stable isotope carbonate content organic matter content and c n ratio records through the petm from new outcrop sections in california and from cores previously drilled on the new jersey margin foraminifer 18o data suggest that midlatitude shelves warmed by a similar magnitude as the open ocean 5 c 8 c while the carbon isotope excursion cie recorded both in carbonate and organic matter 13c records is slightly larger 3 3 4 5 than documented in open ocean records sediment accumulation rates increase dramatically during the cie in marked contrast to the open ocean sites in parallel mass accumulation rates of both organic and inorganic carbon also increased by an order of magnitude the estimated total mass of accumulated carbon in excess of pre cie rates suggests that continental margins at least along north america became carbon sinks during the cie mainly because of weathering feedbacks and rising sea level this result is significant because it implies that the negative feedback role of carbon burial on continental margins was greater than previously recognized

arctic late paleocene early eocene paleoenvironments with special emphasis on the paleocene eocene thermal maximum lomonosov ridge integrated ocean drilling program expedition 302 we reconstruct the latest paleocene and early eocene 57 50 ma environmental trends in the arctic ocean and focus on the paleocene eocene thermal maximum petm 55 ma using strata recovered from the lomonosov ridge by the integrated ocean drilling program expedition 302 the lomonosov ridge was still partially subaerial during the latest paleocene and earliest eocene and gradually subsided during the early eocene organic dinoflagellate cyst dinocyst assemblages point to brackish and productive surface waters throughout the latest paleocene and early eocene dinocyst assemblages are cosmopolitan during this time interval suggesting warm conditions which is corroborated by tex86 reconstructed temperatures of 15 18 c inorganic geochemistry generally reflects reducing conditions within the sediment and euxinic conditions during the upper lower eocene spectral analysis reveals that the cyclicity recorded in x ray fluorescence scanning fe data from close to eocene thermal maximum 2 53 ma presence confirmed by dinocyst stratigraphy is related to precession within the lower part of the petm proxy records indicate enhanced weathering runoff anoxia and productivity along with sea level rise on the basis of total organic carbon content and variations in sediment accumulation rates excess organic carbon burial in the arctic ocean appears to have contributed significantly to the sequestration of injected carbon during the petm

climate model and proxy data constraints on ocean warming across the paleocene eocene thermal maximum article constraining the greenhouse gas forcing climatic warming and estimates of climate sensitivity across ancient large transient warming events is a major challenge to the palaeoclimate research community here we provide a new compilation and synthesis of the available marine proxy temperature data across the largest of these hyperthermals the paleocene eocene thermal maximum petm this includes the application of consistent temperature calibrations to all data including the most recent set of calibrations for archaeal lipid derived palaeothermometry this compilation provides the basis for an informed discussion of the likely range of petm warming the biases present in the existing record and an initial assessment of the geographical pattern of petm ocean warming to aid interpretation of the geographic variability of the proxy derived estimates of petm warming we present a comparison of this data with the patterns of warming produced by high pco2 sim ulations of eocene climates using the hadley centre atmosphere ocean general circulation model aogcm hadcm3l on the basis of this comparison and taking into account the patterns of intermediate water warming we estimate that the global mean surface temperature anomaly for the petm is within the range of 4 to 5 c

early paleogene temperature history of the southwest pacific ocean reconciling proxies and models we present a new multiproxy tex86 18o and mg ca marine temperature history for canterbury basin eastern new zealand that extends from middle paleocene to middle eocene including the paleocene eocene thermal maximum petm and early eocene climatic optimum eeco in light of concerns that proxy based sea surface temperature sst estimates are untenably warm for the southwest pacific during the eocene we review the assumptions that underlie the proxies and develop a preliminary paleo calibration for tex86 that is based on four multiproxy eocene records that represent an sst range of 15 34 c for the southwest pacific paleogene we show that tex86l exhibits the best fit with the eocene paleo calibration ssts derived from related proxies tex86h 1 tex86 exhibit a systematic warm bias that increases as tex86 values decrease a warm bias of 4 7 c where tex86 0 7 the tex86l proxy indicates that southwest pacific sst increased by 10 c from middle paleocene to early eocene with sst maxima of 26 28 c tropical during the petm and eeco and an sst minimum of 13 16 c cool warm temperate at the middle late paleocene transition 58 7 ma the base of the eeco is poorly defined in these records but the top is well defined in canterbury basin by a 2 5 c decrease in sst and bottom water temperature bwt in the latest early eocene 49 3 ma bwt falls from a maximum of 18 20 c in the eeco to 12 14 c in the middle eocene overall cooler temperatures are recorded in the mid waipara section which may reflect a deeper 500 m water depth and less neritic depositional setting compared with hampden and odp 1172 200 m water depth the high ssts and bwts inferred for the petm and eeco can be reconciled with eocene coupled climate model results if the proxies are biased towards seasonal maxima and the likely effect of a proto east australian current is taken into account

depth dependency of the paleocene eocene carbon isotope excursion paired benthic and terrestrial biomarker records ocean drilling program leg 208 walvis ridge 1 the paleocene eocene thermal maximum petm coincided with a negative carbon isotope excursion cie in carbonate and organic matter in terrestrial and marine records consequently the petm global warming of 5 6 c has been attributed to the rapid emission of a large amount of isotopically light carbon into the ocean atmosphere system and the magnitude of the cie has been used to estimate the amount of carbon greenhouse gas emitted however there are large discrepancies between the magnitude of the cie in marine and in terrestrial material in different types of marine carbonate records bulk carbonate planktic and benthic foraminiferal carbonate and in marine carbonate records from different locations the marine carbonate record of the cie may be incomplete in most deep sea bathyal abyssal locations because of ocean acidification and widespread dissolution of seafloor carbonates we demonstrate that the cie in benthic foraminiferal stable isotope records is relatively abrupt and not as gradual as portrayed in bulk carbonate records along the walvis ridge depth transect se atlantic the benthic cie is about 1 5 at 3600 m paleodepth in contrast to about 3 5 at 1500 m paleodepth consistent with depth dependent truncation by carbonate dissolution strong covariance between the benthic record and the stable carbon isotope values of terrestrial n alkanes isolated from the same core i e site 1263 supports a relatively rapid excursion of at least 3 5 but no more than 5 0

ionospheric effects of the leonid meteor shower in november 2001 as observed by rapid run ionosondes 1 we operated ionosondes at four stations in a rapid run mode to obtain ionograms every minute for 102 hours during the period of the leonid meteor shower in november 2001 plenty of radio echoes that looked like echo traces produced by sporadic e reflection were seen in the ionograms and this allowed statistical analysis in a single meteor shower event including discrimination of the backscattering by meteor trails from reflection by a horizontally stratified sporadic e layer the radio echoes seen in the ionograms were categorized into three types the first were spontaneous echoes which were distributed across a wide range of virtual heights at times during the period of maximum meteor activity there was a statistically good correlation among the echoes seen at the four stations the echoes of this type appear to be produced by fresnel backscattering from meteor trails the second were also spontaneous echoes observed during the shower period but persisted for several tens of minutes at the same virtual height as the typical sporadic e layer and the top frequency of these echoes decayed with time echoes of this type are thus attributed to the reflection from a meteor induced sporadic e patch echoes of the last type appeared outside the period of maximum activity of the meteor shower in the same range of virtual heights as the conventional sporadic e layer and there was no time correlation between the events observed at the four stations these events are attributed to a periodical increase in foes which is modulated by planetary wave activity and have no relation with the meteor shower

calibration of mg ca thermometry in planktonic foraminifera from a sediment trap time series 1 paired mg ca and 18o measurements on planktonic foraminiferal species g ruber white g ruber pink g sacculifer g conglobatus g aequilateralis o universa n dutertrei p obliquiloculata g inflata g truncatulinoides g hirsuta and g crassaformis from a 6 year sediment trap time series in the sargasso sea were used to define the sensitivity of foraminiferal mg ca to calcification temperature habitat depths and calcification temperatures were estimated from comparison of 18o of foraminifera with equilibrium calcite based on historical temperature and salinity data when considered together mg ca mmol mol of all species except two show a significant r 0 93 relationship with temperature t c of the form mg ca 0 38 0 02 exp 0 090 0 003 t equivalent to a 9 0 0 3 change in mg ca for a 1 c change in temperature small differences exist in calibrations between species and between different size fractions of the same species o universa and g aequilateralis have higher mg ca than other species and in general data can be best described with the same temperature sensitivity for all species and pre exponential constants in the sequence o universa g aequilateralis g bulloides g ruber g sacculifer other species this approach gives an accuracy of 1 2 c in the estimation of calcification temperature the 9 sensitivity to temperature is similar to published studies from culture and core top calibrations but differences exist from some literature values of pre exponential constants different cleaning methodologies and artefacts of core top dissolution are probably implicated and perhaps environmental factors yet understood planktonic foraminiferal mg ca temperature estimates can be used for reconstructing surface temperatures and mixed and thermocline temperatures using g ruber pink g ruber white g sacculifer n dutertrei p obliquiloculata etc the existence of a single mg thermometry equation is valuable for extinct species although use of species specific equations will where statistically significant provide more accurate evaluation of mg ca paleotemperature

modelling the oxygen isotope distribution of ancient seawater using a coupled ocean atmosphere gcm implications for reconstructing early eocene climate one of the motivations for studying warm climates of the past such as the early eocene is the enhanced understanding this brings of possible future greenhouse conditions traditionally climate information deduced from biological or chemical proxies have been used to test computer model simulations of past climatic conditions and hence establish some of the uncertainties associated with model based predictions however extracting climate information from proxies is itself an interpretative process and discrepancies between climate information inferred from different types of proxy undermines the assumption that model data conflicts automatically mean that the model is inherently flawed a new approach which both acknowledges and reduces the uncertainties associated with both model and data is required although the oxygen isotopic ratio 18o preserved in calcareous marine fossils has been used to reconstruct past seawater temperature for several decades significant uncertainties associated with this method persist these include assumptions about past seawater 18o for which no proxy exists and which is a key control on the temperature inferred from fossil carbonate here we present the results of an early eocene simulation made using a state of the art general circulation model gcm hadcm3 with co2 set at six times pre industrial values and which has oxygen isotopes incorporated into the full hydrological cycle and hence simulates the 18o of past seawater this allows us to explore the implications of the different seawater 18o correction factors commonly used for 18o based temperature reconstruction it also allows us to focus model data comparison on 18o rather than interpret ocean temperature an approach that reduces uncertainties in model data comparison since the effects of both the temperature and the isotopic composition of ocean water on 18o of carbonate are accounted for the good agreement between model and data for both modern and well preserved early eocene carbonate increases confidence in climate reconstructions of this time

eocene sea temperatures for the mid latitude southwest pacific from mg ca ratios in planktonic and benthic foraminifera abstract we have used laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry la icp ms to measure elemental mg ca al ca mn ca zn ca sr ca and ba ca ratios of 13 species of variably preserved early to middle eocene planktonic and benthic foraminifera from new zealand the foraminifera were obtained from ashley mudstone mid waipara river south island which was deposited at bathyal depth ca 1000 m on the northern margin of the east facing canterbury basin at a paleo latitude of ca 55 s la icp ms data yield trace element depth profiles through foraminifera test walls that can be used to identify and exclude zones of surficial contamination and infilling material resulting from diagenetic coatings mineralisation and detrital sediment screened mg ca ratios from 5 species of foraminifera are used to calculate sea temperatures from late early to early middle eocene ca 51 to 46 5 ma a time interval that spans the termination of the early eocene climatic optimum eeco during this time sea surface temperatures sst varied from 30 to 24 c and bottom water temperatures bwt from 21 to 14 c comparison of mg ca sea temperatures with published 18o and tex86 temperature data from the same samples hollis et al 2009 shows close correspondence indicating that la icp ms can provide reliable mg ca sea temperatures even where foraminiferal test preservation is variable agreement between the three proxies also implies that mg ca temperature calibrations for modern planktonic and benthic foraminifera can generally be applied to eocene species although some species e g v marshalli show significant calibration differences the mg ca ratio of the eocene ocean is constrained by our data to be 35 50 lower than the modern ocean depending on which tex86 temperature calibration kim et al 2008 liu et al 2009 is used to compare with the mg ca sea temperatures sea temperatures derived from 18o analysis of foraminifera from waipara show amplified variability relative to the mg ca and tex86 proxies this amplified variability is probably a diagenetic effect although it is possible that this eocene 18o record contains an ice volume component the amplification signalling that temperature changes may have been accompanied by growth and collapse of ephemeral polar ice sheets on timescales of ca 0 5 myr

submarine volcanic morphology of the western galapagos based on em300 bathymetry and mr1 side scan sonar 1 a compilation of high resolution em300 multibeam bathymetric and existing mr1 side scan sonar data was used to investigate the volcanic morphology of the flanks of the western galapagos islands the data portray an assortment of constructional volcanic features on the shallow to deep submarine flanks of fernandina isabela and santiago islands including rift zones and groups of cones that are considered to be the primary elements in constructing the archipelagic apron ten submarine rift zones were mapped ranging in length from 5 to 20 km comparable in length to western canary island rift zones but significantly shorter than hawaiian submarine rift zones a detailed analysis of the northwestern fernandina submarine rift including calculated magnetization from a surface towed magnetic study suggests that the most recent volcanism has focused at the shallow end of the rift small submarine volcanic cones with various morphologies e g pointed cratered and occasionally breached are common in the submarine western galapagos both on rift zones and on the island flanks where no rifts are present at depths greater than 3000 m large lava flow fields in regions of low bathymetric relief have been previously identified as a common seafloor feature in the western galapagos by geist et al 2006 however their source s remained enigmatic the new em300 data show that a number of the deep lava flows originate from small cones along the mid lower portion of the nw submarine rift of fernandina suggesting that the deep flows owe their origin at least in part to submarine rift zone volcanism

what do we know about the evolution of mg to ca ratios in seawater 1 although most reconstructions of the evolution of the mg to ca ratio in seawater conclude that it has increased during the course of the cenozoic they disagree widely regarding the magnitude of this change on the basis of fluid inclusion and caco3 mineralogy observations the increase was at least threefold on the basis of mg content of foraminifera shells it was only a factor of 1 7 a recently published reconstruction based on the mg content of calcite fillings of voids in ridge flank basalts lends support to the conclusion that the change was severalfold but as it is very difficult to come up with a plausible geologic scenario which could account for such a large change we lean toward the smaller estimate based on the magnesium content of foraminifera shells

effect of the deepening of the tasman gateway on the global ocean 1 we examine the effect of the deepening of the tasman seaway at the end of the eocene in a climate model with realistic late eocene bathymetry and winds for this we have constructed an eocene numerical model based on the university of victoria climate model with wind forcing derived from a fully coupled eocene simulation the model climate state is characterized by an oceanic meridional overturning circulation moc involving southern hemisphere sinking and a northward atmospheric moisture transport across the equator the deepening of the tasman seaway in the presence of an open drake passage and the associated establishment of the antarctic circumpolar current acc have a limited climatic impact on antarctica nonetheless the antarctic deep sinking regions cool sufficiently to lead to a global deep ocean cooling of 3 c no initiation of northern component water is found indicating that this may require the development of a more mature acc previous studies suggest that the ross sea gyre cools the east coast of australia and expected the deepening of the tasman seaway to lead to a warming east of australia due to the introduction of warmer water from the australo antarctic gulf we here find that this warming is limited to close to the australian coast and that widespread cooling prevails further off shore

limited range of interspecific vital effects in coccolith stable isotopic records during the paleocene eocene thermal maximum 1 small but significant differences exist among stable carbon and oxygen isotopic excursions measured in coccolith dominated bulk carbonate and planktic foraminifera during the paleocene eocene thermal maximum petm one hypothesis suggests that the bulk carbonate isotopic record is compromised by changing nannofossil assemblages since modern nannofossils show a large 5 permil range of interspecific vital effects new techniques are employed here to separate different size fractions of coccoliths from petm sediments at odp site 690 for isotopic analysis removing a major portion of the variation in nannofossil assemblages isotopic compositions of coarse and fine coccolith fractions dominated by coccoliths of genus chiasmolithus and toweius respectively differ by less than 0 5 permil for both oxygen and carbon the near monogeneric toweius record closely parallels the main trends in the bulk carbonate isotope records including multiple steps in the negative carbon isotopic excursion suggesting that the trends in the bulk carbonate record are not artifacts of changing species assemblages because both coccolithophorids and symbiont bearing foraminifera like acarinina must inhabit the photic zone it is unlikely that the 103 year lags in isotope event onset between coccoliths and acarinina reflect true time transgressive invasion of isotopically depleted co2 into the water column the small range of vital effects among paleocene coccoliths is unlikely to result from diagenetic homogenization and instead may reflect more similar carbon acquisition strategies of paleocene coccolithophorid algae due to larger and or more similar cell sizes and higher atmospheric carbon dioxide the small range of vital effects suggests that bulk carbonate records are likely reliable for other early and pre cenozoic sediments where foraminifera are often scarce

early cenozoic benthic foraminiferal isotopes species reliability and interspecies correction factors 1 oxygen and carbon isotope records are important tools used to reconstruct past ocean and climate conditions with those of benthic foraminifera providing information on the deep oceans reconstructions are complicatedby interspecies isotopic offsets that result from microhabitat preferences carbonate precipitation in isotopically distinct environments and vital effects species specific metabolic variation in isotopic fractionation we provide correction factors for early cenozoic benthic foraminifera commonly used for isotopic measurements cibicidoides spp nuttallides truempyi oridorsalis spp stensioina beccariiformis hanzawaia ammophila and bulimina spp showing that most yield reliable isotopic proxies of environmental change the statistical methods and larger data sets used in this study provide more robust correction factors than do previous studies interspecies isotopic offsets appear to have changed through the cenozoic either 1 as a result of evolutionary changes or 2 as an artifact of different statistical methods and data set sizes used to determine the offsets in different studies regardless of the reason the assumption that isotopic offsets have remained constant through the cenozoic has introduced an 1 2 c uncertainty into deep sea paleotemperature calculations in addition we compare multiple species isotopic data from a western north atlantic section that includes the paleocene eocene thermal maximum to determine the most reliable isotopic indicator for this event we propose that oridorsalis spp was the most reliable deepwater isotopic recorder at this location because it was best able to withstand the harsh water conditions that existed at this time it may be the best recorder at other locations and for other extreme events also

sensitivity of seawater oxygen isotopes to climatic and tectonic boundary conditions in an early paleogene simulation with giss modele r 1 an isotope enabled ocean atmosphere general circulation model giss modele r is used to estimate the spatial gradients of the oxygen isotopic composition of seawater 18osw where is the deviation from a known reference material in per mil during the early paleogene 45 65 ma understanding the response of 18osw to changes in climatic and tectonic boundary conditions is important because records of carbonate 18o document changes in hydrology as well as changes in temperature and global ice volume we present results from an early paleogene configuration of modele r which indicate that spatial gradients of surface ocean 18osw during this period could have been significantly different to those in the modern ocean the differences inferred from modele r are sufficient to change early paleogene sea surface temperature estimates derived from primary carbonate 18o signatures by more than 2 c in large areas of the ocean in the north atlantic indian and southern oceans the differences in 18osw inferred from our simulation with modele r are in direct contrast with those from another 18o tracing model study which used different but equally plausible early paleogene boundary conditions the large differences in 18osw between preindustrial and early paleogene simulations and between models emphasizes the sensitivity of 18osw to climatic and tectonic boundary conditions for this reason absolute estimates of eocene paleocene temperature derived from carbonate 18o alone are likely to have larger uncertainties than are usually assumed