The Source and Fate of Massive Carbon Input During the Latest Paleocene Thermal Maximum

• Published in: Science
• Main Authors: Katz, Miriam E., Pak, Dorothy K., Dickens, Gerald R., Miller, Kenneth G.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 1999
• Subjects: North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.286.5444.1531; https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.286.5444.1531

Lithologic, faunal, seismic, and isotopic evidence from the Blake Nose (subtropical western North Atlantic) links a massive release of biogenic methane ∼55.5 million years ago to a warming of deep-ocean and high-latitude surface waters, a large perturbation in the combined ocean-atmosphere carbon cycle (the largest of the past 90 million years), a mass extinction event in benthic faunas, and a radiation of mammalian orders. The deposition of a mud clast interval and seismic evidence for slope disturbance are associated with intermediate water warming, massive carbon input to the global exogenic carbon cycle, pelagic carbonate dissolution, a decrease in dissolved oxygen, and a benthic foraminiferal extinction event. These events provide evidence to confirm the gas hydrate dissociation hypothesis and identify the Blake Nose as a site of methane release.