TY - JOUR
T1 - Paleocene/Eocene carbon feedbacks triggered by volcanic activity
AU - Kender, Sev
AU - Bogus, Kara
AU - Pedersen, Gunver K.
AU - Dybkjær, Karen
AU - Mather, Tamsin A.
AU - Mariani, Erica
AU - Ridgwell, Andy
AU - Riding, James B.
AU - Wagner, Thomas
AU - Hesselbo, Stephen P.
AU - Leng, Melanie J.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by NERC Isotope Geoscience Steering Committee (NIGFSC) Grants IP-1547-0515 and IP-1915-0619 (to S.K.), a European Research Council Consolidator Grant no. ERC-2018-COG-818717-V-ECHO (to T.A.M.), and forms part of a PhD project by E.M. funded by the College of Engineering, Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter. Thanks to J. Boserup (GEUS) for consolidating and cutting core E−8X, and to L. Percival and F. Palmeri (University of Oxford) for sample analyses. M.J.L. and J.B.R. publish with the approval of the Executive Director, British Geological Survey (NERC).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).
PY - 2021/8/31
Y1 - 2021/8/31
N2 - The Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) was a period of geologically-rapid carbon release and global warming ~56 million years ago. Although modelling, outcrop and proxy records suggest volcanic carbon release occurred, it has not yet been possible to identify the PETM trigger, or if multiple reservoirs of carbon were involved. Here we report elevated levels of mercury relative to organic carbon—a proxy for volcanism—directly preceding and within the early PETM from two North Sea sedimentary cores, signifying pulsed volcanism from the North Atlantic Igneous Province likely provided the trigger and subsequently sustained elevated CO2. However, the PETM onset coincides with a mercury low, suggesting at least one other carbon reservoir released significant greenhouse gases in response to initial warming. Our results support the existence of ‘tipping points’ in the Earth system, which can trigger release of additional carbon reservoirs and drive Earth’s climate into a hotter state.
AB - The Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) was a period of geologically-rapid carbon release and global warming ~56 million years ago. Although modelling, outcrop and proxy records suggest volcanic carbon release occurred, it has not yet been possible to identify the PETM trigger, or if multiple reservoirs of carbon were involved. Here we report elevated levels of mercury relative to organic carbon—a proxy for volcanism—directly preceding and within the early PETM from two North Sea sedimentary cores, signifying pulsed volcanism from the North Atlantic Igneous Province likely provided the trigger and subsequently sustained elevated CO2. However, the PETM onset coincides with a mercury low, suggesting at least one other carbon reservoir released significant greenhouse gases in response to initial warming. Our results support the existence of ‘tipping points’ in the Earth system, which can trigger release of additional carbon reservoirs and drive Earth’s climate into a hotter state.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85114018415&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41467-021-25536-0
DO - 10.1038/s41467-021-25536-0
M3 - Article
C2 - 34465785
AN - SCOPUS:85114018415
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 12
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
M1 - 5186
ER -
