A High-Resolution Record from Svalbard of Carbon Release during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum

摘要

Newly analyzed core material from Svalbard presents a highly expanded clastic sedimentary section spanning the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum (PETM). Carbon isotopic analysis of the bulk organic matter extracted from core BH9-05 details the onset of the negative carbon isotope excursion of approximately 4.5‰ over 5 m of section (sampled every 30 cm). The entire excursion is 50 m in thickness, and is nearly identical in shape to the recently published orbitally tuned record from ODP Site 1263, allowing us to establish a tentative chronology for the core. Using this record to drive an intermediate complexity earth-system model (Genie-1; http://www.genie.ac.uk), we determine the implied rates of carbon release at the Paleocene-Eocene boundary necessary to replicate the isotope excursion and assuming different alternative isotopic compositions for the possible sources of fossil carbon driving the excursion (methane clathrate, coal/peat/marine organic matter).