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Eocene hyperthermal event offers insight into greenhouse warming

  1. Gabriel J. Bowen1
  2. Timothy J. Bralower2
  3. Margareth L. Delaney3
  4. Gerald R. Dickens4
  5. Daniel C. Kelly5
  6. Paul L. Koch6
  7. Lee R. Kump2
  8. Jin Meng7
  9. Lisa C. Sloan6
  10. Ellen Thomas8
  11. Scott L. Wing9
  12. James C. Zachos6

Article first published online: 3 JUN 2011

DOI: 10.1029/2006EO170002

Issue

Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union

Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union

Volume 87, Issue 17, pages 165–169, 25 April 2006

Additional Information

How to Cite

Bowen, G. J., et al. (2006), Eocene hyperthermal event offers insight into greenhouse warming, Eos Trans. AGU, 87(17), 165–169, doi:10.1029/2006EO170002.

Author Information

  1. 1

    Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana

  2. 2

    Department of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University (PSU), University Park

  3. 3

    Ocean Sciences Department, University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC)

  4. 4

    Department of Earth Science, Rice University, Houston, Texas

  5. 5

    Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Wisconsin-Madison

  6. 6

    Earth Sciences Department, UCSC

  7. 7

    Department of Vertebrate Paleontology American Museum of Natural History, New York, N.Y.

  8. 8

    Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

  9. 9

    Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C.

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 3 JUN 2011
  2. Article first published online: 3 JUN 2011

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What happens to the Earth's climate, environment, and biota when thousands of gigatons of greenhouse gases are rapidly added to the atmosphere? Modern anthropogenic forcing of atmospheric chemistry promises to provide an experiment in such change that has not been matched since the early Paleogene, more than 50 million years ago (Ma),when catastrophic release of carbon to the atmosphere drove abrupt, transient, hyperthermal events.

Research on the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum(PETM)—the best documented of these events, which occurred about 55 Ma—has advanced significantly since its discovery 15 years ago. During the PETM, carbon addition to the oceans and atmosphere was of a magnitude similar to that which is anticipated through the 21st century. This event initiated global warming, biotic extinction and migration, and fundamental changes in the carbon and hydrological cycles that transformed the early Paleogene world.

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