Near-tropical Early Eocene terrestrial temperatures at the Australo-Antarctic margin, western Tasmania

A worldwide greenhouse warm climate prevailed in the Early Eocene, and nowhere waswarming more dramatic than at high latitudes. Sea-surface temperatures of ~34 C have beenestimated for a site at paleolatitude 65S on the East Tasman Plateau of the southwest Pacifi cOcean, but these estimates require...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geology
Main Authors: Carpenter, RJ, Jordan, GJ, Macphail, MK, Hill, RS
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Geological Soc America 2012
Subjects:
Earth Sciences
Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience
Palaeoclimatology
Antarctic
Antarctic Peninsula
The Antarctic
Antarc*
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1130/G32584.1
http://ecite.utas.edu.au/80121
Description
Summary:A worldwide greenhouse warm climate prevailed in the Early Eocene, and nowhere waswarming more dramatic than at high latitudes. Sea-surface temperatures of ~34 C have beenestimated for a site at paleolatitude 65S on the East Tasman Plateau of the southwest Pacifi cOcean, but these estimates require independent validation, including from terrestrial proxies.Here we determine a near-tropical terrestrial mean annual temperature estimate of ~24 C atsea level for an Early Eocene site in Tasmania, Australia, using three proxies based on welldatedestuarine plant fossils. This estimate is lower than the nearby sea estimates to the east,but similarly suggests that, as in the southwest Pacifi c, Early Eocene climates in the easternAustralo-Antarctic region were warmer than inferred elsewhere at high latitudes, includingon the Antarctic Peninsula. Such data are essential for improving our understanding of climaticand biotic evolution in the Southern Hemisphere.

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