THE BIGHORN BASIN CORING PROJECT (BBCP): COMPARING THE EFFECTS OF THE PALEOCENE-EOCENE THERMAL MAXIMUM (PETM) WITH MODERN GLOBAL WARMING

Hyperthermals are short-term, large magnitude global warming events associated with extreme perturbations to the earth’s carbon cycle that occurred during the early Paleogene and are thought to be analogous in many ways to modern anthropogenic global warming. The Bighorn Basin Coring Project (BBCP) was organized to collect high-resolution continental stratigraphic records of these events from the late Paleocene to early Eocene fluvial deposits of northwestern Wyoming. During the summer of 2011, over 900m of overlapping core were recovered from 3 different sites with >98% core recovery in all holes. Results from the BBCP will be summarized including unexpected discoveries related to carbon cycling during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), the largest of the Paleogene hyperthermals. The presentation will focus in particular on comparing and contrasting the biotic, hydrological, and geochemical effects of the PETM with changes associated with modern anthropogenic global warming.