Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Evaluating Thresholds In Fluvial Response To The Eocene Thermal Maximum 2 In The Bighorn Basin (Wyoming, U.S.A), Grace Marie Sutherland

WWU Graduate School Collection

Earth's climate experienced a set of hyperthermal events during the greenhouse climate state of the early Paleogene. The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) was the largest of these abrupt global warming events, occurring at ~56 Ma and lasting for ~200,000 years. The PETM is identifiable by a large negative carbon isotope excursion and associated with significant changes in global temperature, hydrology, ocean chemistry, and biology. Subsequent smaller hyperthermal events appear to have commensurately smaller effects on marine environments, but the scaling of the complementary nonmarine environmental responses is unclear.

The Bighorn Basin of northwest Wyoming contains the most detailed nonmarine record …