The PIs will carry out an integrated chemostratigraphic, lithostratigraphic and ecostratigraphic study that will consider the onset and history of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum in the context of earlier studies from the Atlantic, Pacific, and deeper Southern Ocean. The PIs have generated a bulk carbonate stable isotope record for two Southern Ocean sites that demonstrates stratigraphic completeness across the Paleocene-Eocene boundary at both sites. They propose to test three questions and relate their findings to other PETM records: 1) what was the rate of onset of the PETM and specifically, did the hypothesized methane release that triggered the PETM event oxidize in the atmosphere and progressively mix downward through the ocean?; 2) how did carbonate saturation change through the section and were there multiple methane injections?, and 3) how did the planktic and benthic ecosystems respond to the event by way of changes in hydrography and planktic-benthic coupling? The addition of Sites 738 and 689 results to other depth transects focused on high-resolution study of the PETM will provide new information for the shallower depths of the Southern Ocean.
