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Floodplain Response To Eocene Thermal Maximum 2 In The Southern Bighorn Basin, Wyoming, U.S.A., Eve Lalor
Floodplain Response To Eocene Thermal Maximum 2 In The Southern Bighorn Basin, Wyoming, U.S.A., Eve Lalor
WWU Graduate School Collection
Paleosols in the Willwood Formation of the Bighorn Basin, Wyoming contain a sedimentary and geochemical record of several early Eocene hyperthermal (rapid, global warming) events including the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) and the Eocene Thermal Maximum 2 (ETM2). Numerous studies of the PETM indicate environmental shifts including an overall decrease in precipitation and soil moisture, but the hydrologic response to the subsequent smaller Eocene hyperthermals remains poorly understood. In order to estimate potential precipitation changes during ETM2, I sampled floodplain paleosol horizons from Willwood Formation strata below, within, and above the stratigraphic carbon isotope excursion (CIE) that marks the ETM2. …