PETM. Unearthing Ancient Global Warming

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Description

Fifty-five million years ago a sudden, enormous influx of carbon flooded the ocean and atmosphere for reasons that are still unclear to scientists. What is clear is that as atmospheric carbon dioxide content increased, the average global surface temperature rose as much as 15 degrees Fahrenheit. The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), as this global warming event has become known, lasted about 120,000 years and had dramatic impacts on living things both on land and in the oceans. In this science bulletin, a team of paleontologists, paleobotanists, soil scientists, and other researchers take to the field in Wyoming's Big Horn Basin to seek evidence of ecosystem change during the PETM. The work will help make predictions about how our current global warming event could impact life on Earth.