NEW ATMOSPHERIC PCO(2) ESTIMATES FROM PALEOSOLS DURING THE LATE PALEOCENE EARLY EOCENE GLOBAL WARMING INTERVAL

The late Paleocene to early Eocene was one of the warmest intervals in Earth's history. Superimposed on this long-term warming was an abrupt short-term extreme warm event at or near the Paleocene/Eocene boundar y and centered in the higher latitudes. This short-term climate warmin g was associated with a major benthic foraminiferal extinction and a d ramatic 3-4 parts per thousand drop in the ocean's carbon isotopic com position. It has been suggested that the late Paleocene/early Eocene g lobal warming was caused by an enhanced greenhouse effect associated w ith higher levels of atmospheric CO2 relative to present levels. We pr esent carbon isotopic data from the co-existing paleosols organic matt er and carbonates from a terrestrial sequence in the Paris Basin, Fran ce that contradict the notion that an increase in atmospheric CO2 leve l was the cause of extreme warming for this time interval. Atmospheric pCO(2) estimates for the Late Paleocene/early Eocene estimated from t he terrestrial carbon isotopic record spanning the Paleocene/Eocene tr ansition, are indistinguishable from each other and were generally bet ween 300 and 700 ppm.