TY - JOUR
T1 - Environmental changes during the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction and Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum
T2 - Implications for the Anthropocene
AU - Keller, Gerta
AU - Mateo, Paula
AU - Punekar, Jahnavi
AU - Khozyem, Hassan
AU - Gertsch, Brian
AU - Spangenberg, Jorge
AU - Bitchong, Andre Mbabi
AU - Adatte, Thierry
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank G.R. Dickens, S. Ashckenazi-Polivoda and four anonymous reviewers for their comments and critiques, which have greatly helped improve this paper. This study is based upon work supported by Princeton University, Geosciences Department Tuttle and Scott funds, the US National Science Foundation through the Continental Dynamics Program (Leonard Johnson), Sedimentary Geology and Paleobiology Program and Office of International Science & Engineering's India Program under NSF grants EAR-0207407, EAR-0447171, EAR-1026271 and INT 95-04309.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 International Association for Gondwana Research
PY - 2018/4
Y1 - 2018/4
N2 - The Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary (KPB) mass extinction (~ 66.02 Ma) and the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) (~ 55.8 Ma) are two remarkable climatic and faunal events in Earth's history that have implications for the current Anthropocene global warming and rapid diversity loss. Here we evaluate these two events at the stratotype localities in Tunisia and Egypt based on climate warming and environmental responses recorded in faunal and geochemical proxies. The KPB mass extinction is commonly attributed to the Chicxulub impact, but Deccan volcanism appears as a major culprit. New mercury analysis reveals that major Deccan eruptions accelerated during the last 10 ky and reached the tipping point leading up to the mass extinction. During the PETM, climate warmed rapidly by ~ 5 °C, which is mainly attributed to methane degassing from seafloor sediments during global warming linked to the North Atlantic Igneous Province (NAIP). Biological effects were transient, marked by temporary absence of most planktic foraminifera due to ocean acidification followed by the return of the pre-PETM fauna and diversification. In contrast, the current rapid rise in atmospheric CO2 and climate warming are magnitudes faster than at the KPB or PETM events leading to predictions of a PETM-like response as best case scenario and rapidly approaching sixth mass extinction as worst-case scenario.
AB - The Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary (KPB) mass extinction (~ 66.02 Ma) and the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) (~ 55.8 Ma) are two remarkable climatic and faunal events in Earth's history that have implications for the current Anthropocene global warming and rapid diversity loss. Here we evaluate these two events at the stratotype localities in Tunisia and Egypt based on climate warming and environmental responses recorded in faunal and geochemical proxies. The KPB mass extinction is commonly attributed to the Chicxulub impact, but Deccan volcanism appears as a major culprit. New mercury analysis reveals that major Deccan eruptions accelerated during the last 10 ky and reached the tipping point leading up to the mass extinction. During the PETM, climate warmed rapidly by ~ 5 °C, which is mainly attributed to methane degassing from seafloor sediments during global warming linked to the North Atlantic Igneous Province (NAIP). Biological effects were transient, marked by temporary absence of most planktic foraminifera due to ocean acidification followed by the return of the pre-PETM fauna and diversification. In contrast, the current rapid rise in atmospheric CO2 and climate warming are magnitudes faster than at the KPB or PETM events leading to predictions of a PETM-like response as best case scenario and rapidly approaching sixth mass extinction as worst-case scenario.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.gr.2017.12.002
DO - 10.1016/j.gr.2017.12.002
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85044671984
SN - 1342-937X
VL - 56
SP - 69
EP - 89
JO - Gondwana Research
JF - Gondwana Research
ER -