Ancient global warming event sheds light on Earth's future
About 56 million years ago, our planet experienced one of the largest and fastest global warming events in the history. The so-called Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) was exceptional both in terms of its amplitude (with global temperatures rising by five to eight degrees Celsius) and its suddenness (about 5,000 years – a very short period on a geological scale).
By analyzing sediments collected from the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, a team of scientists led by the University of Geneva (UNIGE) has now found that this event – which led to the extinction of a vast number of terrestrial and marine species – was characterized by an increase in rainfall seasonality, which led to the movement of massive quantities of clay into the ocean, making it uninhabitable for many species.
Due to the similarities between PETM and current global warming – including possible causes such as high concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere – the geological remains of this period are closely studied by scientists in order to gain insights to the future of our planet.
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