Bolide summer: The Paleocene/Eocene thermal maximum as a response to an extraterrestrial trigger

The standard paradigm that the Paleocene/Eocene thermal maximum (PETM) represents a threshold event intrinsic to Earth's climate and connected in some way with long-term warming has influenced interpretations of the geochemical, climate, and biological perturbations that occurred at this event. As recent high-resolution data have demonstrated that the onset of the event was geologically instantaneous, attempts to account for the event solely through endogenous mechanisms have become increasingly strained. The rapid onset of the event indicates that it was triggered by a catastrophic event which we suggest was most likely a bolide impact. We discuss features of the PETM that require explanation and argue that mechanisms that have previously been proposed either cannot explain all of these features or would require some sort of high-energy trigger. A bolide impact could provide such a trigger and, in the event of a comet impact, could contribute directly to the shape of the carbon isotope curve. We introduce a carbon cycle model that would explain the PETM by global warming following a bolide impact, leading to the oxidation of terrestrial organic carbon stores built up during the late Paleocene. Our intention is to encourage other researchers to seriously consider an impact trigger for the PETM, especially in the absence of plausible alternative mechanisms

Orbital climate forcing of δ^13 excursions in the late Paleocene-early Eocene (chrons C24n-C25n)

High-resolution stable carbon isotope records for upper Paleocene-lower Eocene sections at Ocean Drilling Program Sites 1051 and 690 and Deep Sea Drilling Project Sites 550 and 577 show numerous rapid (40-60 kyr duration) negative excursions of up to 1‰. We demonstrate that these transient decreases are the expected result of nonlinear insolation forcing of the carbon cycle in the context of a long carbon residence time. The transients occur at maxima in Earth's orbital eccentricity, which result in high-amplitude variations in insolation due to forcing by climatic precession. The construction of accurate orbital chronologies for geologic sections older than ~35 Ma relies on identifying a high-fidelity recorder of variations in Earth's orbital eccentricity. We use the carbon isotope records as such a recorder, establishing a robust orbitally tuned chronology for latest Paleocene-earliest Eocene events. Moreover, the transient decreases provide a means of precise correlation among the four sites that is independent of magnetostratigraphic and biostratigraphic data at the <10^5-year scale. While the eccentricity-controlled transient decreases bear some resemblance to the much larger-amplitude carbon isotope excursion (CIE) that marks the Paleocene/Eocene boundary, the latter event is found to occur near a minimum in the ~400-kyr eccentricity cycle. Thus the CIE occurred during a time of minimal variability in insolation, the dominant mechanism for forcing climate change on 10^4-year scales. We argue that this is inconsistent with mechanisms that rely on a threshold climate event to trigger the Paleocene/Eocene thermal maximum since any threshold would more likely be crossed during a period of high-amplitude climate variations

Late Paleocene event chronology: unconformities, not diachrony

The chronology of the events associated with the late Paleocene thermal maximum (LPTM, Chron C24r) has been established through the construction of a composite reference section that involved chemomagnetobiostratigraphic correlations and assumed minimum diachrony of biostratigraphic events. On this basis, discrepancies between correlations in different sections were explained by inferred unconformities. However, diachrony between distant sections cannot be ruled out. We report here on two geographically close sections drilled onshore New Jersey that yield different records of chemomagnetobiostratigraphic correlations in the interval representing Chron C24r. Because of their proximity (approximately 40 km apart), diachrony of biostratigraphic events between the two sections can be ruled out. In contrast, the marked lithologic disconformities in the sections explain well the different records of events. We thus conclude that the current relative chronology for Chron C24r is firmly based and that the upper Paleocene-lower Eocene stratigraphic record yields multiple unconformities, with Subzone NP9b rarely sampled. We examine the implications that undeciphered unconformities may have on the identification of proxies for paleoceanographic reconstruction, in particular with regard to the identification of the carbon isotope excursion (CIE) that reflects a dramatic latest Paleocene disturbance of the carbon cycle. We propose biostratigraphic means (short-lived calcareous nannoplankton and planktonic foraminifera taxa) that permit the unequivocal identification of the CIE not only in the oceanic realm but also in neritic settings

An Exceptional Chronologic, Isotopic, and Clay Mineralogic Record of the Latest Paleocene Thermal Maximum, Bass River, NJ, ODP 174AX

A thick, apparently continuous section recording events of the latest Paleocene thermal maximum in a neritic setting was drilled at Bass River State Forest, New Jersey as part of ODP Leg l74AX [Miller, Sugarman, Browning et al., 1998]. Integrated nannofossil and magneto-stratigraphy provides a firm chronology supplemented by planktonic foraminiferal biostratigraphy. This chronologic study indicates that this neritic section rivals the best deep-sea sections in providing a complete record of late Paleocene climatic events. Carbon and oxygen isotopes measured on benthic foraminifera show a major (4.0 %o in carbon, 2.3 %o in oxygen) negative shift correlative with the global latest Paleocene carbon isotope excursion (CIE). A sharp increase in kaolinite content coincides with the isotope shift in the Bass River section, analogous to increases found in several other records. Carbon and oxygen isotopes remain low and kaolinite content remains high for the remainder of the depositional sequence above the CIE (32.5 ft, 9.9 m), which we estimate to represent 300-500 k.y. We interpret these data as indicative of an abrupt shift to a warmer and wetter climate along the North American mid-Atlantic coast, in concert with global events associated with the CIE

Lieb-Robinson Bounds for Harmonic and Anharmonic Lattice Systems

We prove Lieb-Robinson bounds for the dynamics of systems with an infinite dimensional Hilbert space and generated by unbounded Hamiltonians. In particular, we consider quantum harmonic and certain anharmonic lattice systems

The Phanerozoic Record of Global Sea-Level Change

We review Phanerozoic sea-level changes [543 million years ago (Ma) to the present] on various time scales and present a new sea-level record for the past 100 million years (My). Long-term sea level peaked at 100 ± 50 meters during the Cretaceous, implying that ocean-crust production rates were much lower than previously inferred. Sea level mirrors oxygen isotope variations, reflecting ice-volume change on the 104- to 106-year scale, but a link between oxygen isotope and sea level on the 107-year scale must be due to temperature changes that we attribute to tectonically controlled carbon dioxide variations. Sea-level change has influenced phytoplankton evolution, ocean chemistry, and the loci of carbonate, organic carbon, and siliciclastic sediment burial. Over the past 100 My, sea-level changes reflect global climate evolution from a time of ephemeral Antarctic ice sheets (100 to 33 Ma), through a time of large ice sheets primarily in Antarctica (33 to 2.5 Ma), to a world with large Antarctic and large, variable Northern Hemisphere ice sheets (2.5 Ma to the present)

Stable isotopic response to late Eocene extraterrestrial impacts

We evaluated the age of two Upper Eocene impact ejecta layers (North American microtektites linked to the Chesapeake Bay impact structure and clinopyroxene [cpx] spherules from the Popigai crater) and the global effects of the associated impact events. The reported occurrence of cpx spherules from the Popigai impact structure at South Atlantic ODP Site 1090 within the middle of magnetochron C16n.1n yields a magnetochronologic age of 35.4 Ma. We generated high-resolution stable isotope records at Sites 1090, 612 (New Jersey slope), and Caribbean core RC9-58 that show: (1) a 0.5‰ δ^13C decrease in bulk-carbonate at Site 1090 coincident with the Popigai cpx spherule layer, and (2) a 0.4‰-0.5‰ decrease in deep-water benthic foraminiferal δ^13C values across the Popigai impact ejecta layer at Site 612 and core RC9-58. We conclude that the δ^13C excursion associated with Popigai was a global event throughout the marine realm that can be correlated to magnetochron C16n.1n. The amplitude of this excursion (~0.5‰) is within the limits of natural variability, suggesting it was caused by a decrease in carbon export productivity, potentially triggered by the impact event(s). North American microtektites associated with the Chesapeake Bay impact occur stratigraphically above the Popigai cpx spherules at Site 612 and core RC9-58. We found no definite evidence of a δ^13C anomaly associated with the North American microtektite layer, though further studies are warranted. High-resolution bulk-carbonate and benthic foraminiferal δ^18O records show no global temperature change associated with the cpx spherule or North American microtektite layers

The role of religion in the longer-range future, April 6, 7, and 8, 2006

This repository item contains a single issue of the Pardee Conference Series, a publication series that began publishing in 2006 by the Boston University Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future. This conference that took place during April 6, 7, and 8, 2006. Co-organized by David Fromkin, Director, Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, and Ray L. Hart, Dean ad interim Boston University School of TheologyThe conference brought together some 40 experts from various disciplines to ponder upon the “great dilemma” of how science, religion, and the human future interact. In particular, different panels looked at trends in what is happening to religion around the world, questions about how religion is impacting the current political and economic order, and how the social dynamics unleashed by science and by religion can be reconciled.Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affair

Can One Trust Quantum Simulators?

Various fundamental phenomena of strongly-correlated quantum systems such as high-$T_c$ superconductivity, the fractional quantum-Hall effect, and quark confinement are still awaiting a universally accepted explanation. The main obstacle is the computational complexity of solving even the most simplified theoretical models that are designed to capture the relevant quantum correlations of the many-body system of interest. In his seminal 1982 paper [Int. J. Theor. Phys. 21, 467], Richard Feynman suggested that such models might be solved by "simulation" with a new type of computer whose constituent parts are effectively governed by a desired quantum many-body dynamics. Measurements on this engineered machine, now known as a "quantum simulator," would reveal some unknown or difficult to compute properties of a model of interest. We argue that a useful quantum simulator must satisfy four conditions: relevance, controllability, reliability, and efficiency. We review the current state of the art of digital and analog quantum simulators. Whereas so far the majority of the focus, both theoretically and experimentally, has been on controllability of relevant models, we emphasize here the need for a careful analysis of reliability and efficiency in the presence of imperfections. We discuss how disorder and noise can impact these conditions, and illustrate our concerns with novel numerical simulations of a paradigmatic example: a disordered quantum spin chain governed by the Ising model in a transverse magnetic field. We find that disorder can decrease the reliability of an analog quantum simulator of this model, although large errors in local observables are introduced only for strong levels of disorder. We conclude that the answer to the question "Can we trust quantum simulators?" is... to some extent.Comment: 20 pages. Minor changes with respect to version 2 (some additional explanations, added references...

NA49 results on hadron production: indications of the onset of deconfinement ?

The NA49 experiment at the CERN SPS measured the energy and system size dependence of particle production in A+A collisions. A change of the energy dependence of several hadron production properties at low SPS energies is observed which suggests a scenario requiring the onset of deconfinement.Comment: XXXV International Symposium on Multiparticle Dynamics 200