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The response of the Earth system to greenhousegas- driven warming is of critical importance for the future trajectory of our planetary environment. Hyperthermal events - past climate transients with global-scale warming significantly above background climate variability - can provide insights into the nature and magnitude of these responses. The largest hyperthermal of the Cenozoic was the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM ~56 Ma). Here we present new high-resolution bulk sediment stable isotope and major element data for the classic PETM section at Zumaia, Spain. With these data we provide a new detailed stratigraphic correlation to other key deep-ocean and terrestrial PETM reference sections. With this new correlation and age model we are able to demonstrate that detrital sediment accumulation rates within the Zumaia continental margin section increased more than 4-fold during the PETM, representing a radical change in regional hydrology that drove dramatic increases in terrestrial-to-marine sediment flux. Most remarkable is that detrital accumulation rates remain high throughout the body of the PETM, and even reach peak values during the recovery phase of the characteristic PETM carbon isotope excursion (CIE). Using a series of Earth system model inversions, driven by the new Zumaia carbon isotope record, we demonstrate that the silicate weathering feedback alone is insufficient to recover the PETM CIE, and that active organic carbon burial is required to match the observed dynamics of the CIE. Further, we demonstrate that the period of maximum organic carbon sequestration coincides with the peak in detrital accumulation rates observed at Zumaia. Based on these results, we hypothesise that orbitalscale variations in subtropical hydro-climates, and their subsequent impact on sediment dynamics, may contribute to the rapid climate and CIE recovery from peak-PETM conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), a hyperthermal event that occurred ca. 56 Ma, has been attributed to the release of substantial amounts of carbon, affecting the atmosphere, biosphere and the oceans. Current issues with respect to our understanding of the PETM include the amount of carbon released, the duration of carbon release, and the mechanism(s) of release, all of which are related to the magnitude and profile of the associated Carbon Isotope Excursion (CIE). High-resolution organic carbon profiles ( ) of six PETM sections in northern Spain are presented that span a transect from continental to marine environments. These data represent the highest-resolution isotope records for these sections and allow a comparison of the magnitude of the excursion, the shape of the vertical profile during the PETM episode, and the relative timing of the onset of the excursion across a linked sediment routing system. Previous studies using carbonate data have suggested that the continental Claret Conglomerate, found in this region, formed synchronously with a marine clay-rich siliciclastic unit, with these key lithological changes interpreted to be driven by increased seasonal rainfall-runoff in the warmer PETM climate. Our data suggest that deposition of these units did not immediately follow the CIE onset, indicating that there may be a temporal lag between the onset of the PETM warming and the response of the depositional systems in northern Spain. No systematic variation in the magnitude of the CIE between different depositional environments was found; the marine CIE magnitudes are at the higher end of those previously described ( ), and the continental ranges are lower ( ). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

We present sediment pore fluid and sediment solid phase results obtained during IODP Expedition 340 from seven sites located within the Grenada Basin of the southern Lesser Antilles Volcanic Arc region. These sites are generally characterized as being low in organic carbon content and rich in calcium carbonate and volcanogenic material. In addition to the typical reactions related to organic matter diagenesis, pore fluid chemistry indicates that the diagenetic reactions fall within two broad categories; (1) reactions related to chemical exchange with volcanogenic material and (2) reactions related to carbonate dissolution, precipitation, or recrystallization. For locations dominated by reaction with volcanogenic material, these sites exhibit increases in dissolved Ca with coeval decreases in Mg. We interpret this behavior as being driven by sediment-water exchange reactions from the alteration of volcanic material that is dispersed throughout the sediment package, which likely result in formation of Mg-rich secondary authigenic clays. In contrast to this behavior, sediment sequences that exhibit decreases in Ca, Mg, Mn, and Sr with depth suggest that carbonate precipitation is an active diagenetic process affecting solute distributions. The distributions of pore fluid 87 Sr/ 86 Sr reflect these competitive diagenetic reactions between volcanic material and carbonate, which are inferred by the major cation distributions. From one site where we have solid phase 87 Sr/ 86 Sr (site U1396), the carbonate fraction is found to be generally consistent with the contemporaneous seawater isotope values. However, the 87 Sr/ 86 Sr of the non-carbonate fraction ranges from 0.7074 to 0.7052, and these values likely represent a mixture of local arc volcanic sources and trans-Atlantic eolian sources. Even at this site where there is clear evidence for diagenesis of volcanogenic material, carbonate diagenesis appears to buffer pore fluid 87 Sr/ 86 Sr from the larger changes that might be expected given the high abundance of tephra in these sediments. Part of this carbonate buffering, at this site as well as throughout the region, derives from the fact that the Sr concentration in the non-carbonate fraction is generally low (<200 ppm), whereas the carbonate fraction has Sr concentrations approaching ∼1000 ppm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]