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The middle Eocene climatic optimum (ca. 40 Ma) stands out as a transient global warming phase of ~400 k.y. duration that interrupted long-term Eocene cooling; it has been associated with a rise in atmospheric CO2 concentrations that has been linked to a flare-up in Arabia-Eurasia continental arc volcanism. Increased organic carbon burial in the Tethys Ocean has been proposed as a carbon sequestration mechanism to bring the middle Eocene climatic optimum to an end. To further test these hypotheses, we assessed the sedimentary and geochemical expression of the middle Eocene climatic optimum in the northern Peri-Tethys, specifically, the organic-rich Kuma Formation of the Belaya River section, located on the edge of the Scythian Platform in the North Caucasus, Russia. We constructed an age-depth model using nannofossil chronobiostratigraphy. Throughout the studied middle Eocene interval (41.2-39.9 Ma), we documented sea-surface temperatures of 32-36 °C based on the tetraether index of tetraethers consisting of 86 carbons (TEX86), depending on proxy calibration, and during the early middle Eocene climatic optimum, we observed sea-surface warming of 2-3 °C. Despite the proximity of the section to the Arabia-Eurasia volcanic arc, the hypothesized source of volcanic CO2, we found no evidence for enhanced regional volcanism in sedimentary mercury concentrations. Sedimentary trace-element concenconcentrations and iron speciation indicate reducing bottom waters throughout the middle Eocene, but the most reducing, even euxinic, conditions were reached during late middle Eocene climatic optimum cooling. This apparent regional decoupling between ocean warming and deoxygenation hints at a role for regional tectonics in causing basin restriction and anoxia. Associated excess organic carbon burial, extrapolated to the entire regional Kuma Formation, may have been ~8.1 Tg C yr-1, comprising ~450 Pg C over this ~55 k.y. interval. Combined with evidence for enhanced organic carbon drawdown in the western Peri-Tethys, this supports a quantitatively significant role for the basin in the termination of the middle Eocene climatic optimum by acting as a large organic carbon sink, and these results collectively illustrate that the closing Tethys Ocean might have affected global Paleogene climate. Moreover, this study highlights the importance of the interplay between global climate and regional oceanic gateway evolution in determining local climate and oceanographic change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Earth's current icehouse phase began ~34 m.y. ago with the onset of major Antarctic glaciation at the Eocene-Oligocene transition. Changes in ocean circulation and a decline in atmospheric greenhouse gas levels were associated with stepwise cooling and ice growth at southern high latitudes. The Antarctic cryosphere plays a critical role in the ocean-atmosphere system, but its early evolution is still poorly known. With a nearfield record from Prydz Bay, Antarctica, we demonstrate that Antarctic ice growth was stepwise and had an earlier onset than previously suggested. Prydz Bay lies downstream of a major East Antarctic Ice Sheet drainage system, and its sedimentary records uniquely constrain the timing of ice-sheet advance onto the continental shelf. We investigated a detrital record extracted from three Ocean Drilling Program drill holes within a new depositional and chronological framework spanning the late Eocene to early Oligocene (ca. 36-33 Ma). The chemical index of alteration (CIA) and the S index, calculated from the major-element geochemistry of bulk samples, yielded estimates of chemical weathering intensities and mean annual temperature on the East Antarctic continent. We document evidence for late Eocene mountain glaciation along with transient warm events at 35.8-34.8 Ma. From 34.4 Ma, associated with the Eocene-Oligocene transition precursor δ18O excursion, glaciers advanced into Prydz Bay, coincident with a decline in chemical weathering and temperature. We conclude that Antarctic continental ice growth commenced with the Eocene-Oligocene transition "precursor" glaciation, during a time of Subantarctic surface ocean cooling and a decline in atmospheric pCO2. These results call for dynamic high-latitude feedbacks that are currently poorly represented in Earth system models and emphasize the need for additional near-field glacio-sedimentological, high-latitude sea-surface temperature and pCO2 records across the Eocene-Oligocene transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Salamanca Formation of the San Jorge Basin (Patagonia, Argentina) preserves critical records of Southern Hemisphere Paleo cene biotas, but its age remains poorly resolved, with estimates ranging from Late Cretaceous to middle Paleocene. We report a multi-disciplinary geochronologic study of the Salamanca Formation and overlying Río Chico Group in the western part of the basin . New constraints include (1) an 40Ar/39Ar age determination of 67.31 ±0.55 Ma from a basalt fl ow underlying the Salamanca Formation, (2) micropaleontological results indicating an early Danian age for the base of the Salamanca Formation, (3) laser ablation HR-MC-ICP-MS (high resolutionmulti collector-inductively coupled plasmamass spectrometry) U-Pb ages and a highresolution TIMS (thermal ionization mass spectrometry) age of 61.984 ±0.041(0.074) [0.100] Ma for zircons from volcanic ash beds in the Peñas Coloradas Formation (Río Chico Group), and (4) paleomagnetic results indicating that the Salamanca Formation in this area is entirely of normal polarity, with reversals occurring in the Río Chico Group. Placing these new age constraints in the context of a sequence stratigraphic model for the basin, we correlate the Salamanca Formation in the study area to Chrons C29n and C28n, with the Banco Negro Inferior (BNI), a mature widespread fossiliferous paleosol unit at the top of the Salamanca Formation, corresponding to the top of Chron C28n. The diverse paleo botanical assemblages from this area are here assigned to C28n (64.67- 63.49 Ma), 2-3 million years older than previously thought, adding to growing evidence for rapid Southern Hemisphere fl oral recovery after the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction. Important Peligran and "Carodnia" zone vertebrate fossil assemblages from coastal BNI and Peñas Coloradas exposures are likely older than previously thought and correlate to the early Torrejonian and early Tiffanian North American Land Mammal Ages, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]