Seminar

The Eocene-Oligocene Transition (EOT, ~33.7 million years ago) is one of the most significant events during the Cenozoic era, during which the Earth stepped from “Greenhouse” into “Icehouse” world.  Global temperature dropped significantly, accompanied by the large-scale ice sheet formation on Antarctic and atmospheric CO2 dropdown. The South Ocean gateway opening and Antarctic Circumpolar Current formation occurred around the same time. There exist some indications that due to global and regional factors, northern hemisphere EOT cooling appears to be delayed. The EOT section has been relatively well studied from marine archives, with very limited terrestrial records available, limiting our understanding of the full spectrum of EOT changes. In this study, I propose to study terrestrial responses to the EOT, testing whether a delayed response indeed existed in the northern hemisphere or not, which would help decipher potential roles of different factors involved in this event.  Two EOT profiles from mid- and low-latitude China are chosen for this study, using organic geochemical tools.