The ancient period of global warming 56 million years ago when acidic oceans and extinct marine animals had little effect on the Gulf of Mexico, where life was protected by a unique geology – according to a study by the University of Texas Institute for. Geophysics (UTIG).Published in the journal Marine and Petroleum Geology, the findings not only illuminate the extinction of the ancient masses, but also help scientists to see how current climate change will affect marine life and help in efforts to obtain oil and gas deposits.
And although the Gulf of Mexico is very different today, UTIG geochemist Bob Cunningham, who led the study, said important lessons can be learned about climate change today from how Gulf was affected in the past.”This event known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum or PETM is very important to understand because it points to a very strong carbon injection, albeit short of an atmosphere similar to what is happening now,” he said.
Cunningham and his collaborators explored the ancient period of global warming and its effect on marine life and chemistry by studying a collection of mud, sand, and limestone particles found across the Gulf.They filtered rock chips grown during the oil and gas exploration and discovered a host of microfossils from radiolarians – a type of plankton – that were remarkably successful in the Gulf during the global warming period. They concluded that the continued discovery of fossil fuels and circulating seas had helped radiolarian and other small creatures to survive even in hot climates.
When global warming strike
The reasons for this go back to the geologic forces that reshaped North America at that time. Nearly 20 million years before the warming of the ancient globe, the climb of the Rocky Mountains reverted rivers northwest of the Gulf of Mexico – a tectonic shift known as the Laramide uplift – sending many continental rivers to what is now Texas and Louisiana. in the deep waters of the Gulf.When global warming strikes and North America becomes hot and humid, rain-fed rivers evaporate nutrients into the soil, providing abundant phytoplankton and other food sources for radiolarians.
The findings also confirm that the Gulf of Mexico remained connected to the Atlantic Ocean and that the salinity of its waters did not reach extremes – a question that has remained open until now. According to Phillips, the presence of single radiolarians – which are more effective in less nutritious water than in seawater today – has confirmed that Gulf water is less salty. Cunningham added that the organic content of sediments had dropped off the coast, which was a sign that the deep currents of the Atlantic Ocean were sweeping the ground.
The study accurately dates the adjacent geologic layers in the Wilcox Group (a group of rock layers that retain the essential petroleum system), a task that could aid in efforts to find oil and gas reserves that have not yet been discovered in the same age. At the same time, the findings are important for researchers investigating the effects of global warming today because they reflect how the Gulf waters and environment changed in a time similar to those of climate change long ago.The study included geologic samples from 36 industry sources throughout the Gulf of Mexico, as well as a number of scientific excavations that included a 2016 UT Austin-led study of the impact of the Chicxulub asteroid, which led to the extinction of non-bird dinosaurs.
For John Snedden, co-author of research and senior research scientist at UTIG, this study is a perfect example of industry data used to address important scientific questions.”The Gulf of Mexico is a place of incredible and highly explored natural history,” he said. “We have used this solid site to explore one of the hottest events in the geologic record, and I think it has provided a very different perspective on the most important moment in the history of the world.”Snedden is also the program director for UT’s Gulf Basin Depositional Synthesis, an industry-sponsored project to map geological history of the entire Gulf region, including current research. UTIG is a research unit of the UT Jackson School of Geosciences.
Source Journal Reference:Robert Cunningham, Marcie Purkey Phillips, John W. Snedden, Ian O. Norton, Christopher M. Lowery, Jon W. Virdell, Craig D. Barrie, Aaron Avery. Productivity and organic carbon trends through the Wilcox Group in the deep Gulf of Mexico: Evidence for ventilation during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. Marine and Petroleum Geology, 2022; 140: 105634 DOI: 10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2022.105634
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