Articles | Volume 13, issue 9
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-13-1129-2017
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-13-1129-2017
Research article
 | Highlight paper
 | 
11 Sep 2017
Research article | Highlight paper |  | 11 Sep 2017

Astronomical calibration of the Ypresian timescale: implications for seafloor spreading rates and the chaotic behavior of the solar system?

Thomas Westerhold, Ursula Röhl, Thomas Frederichs, Claudia Agnini, Isabella Raffi, James C. Zachos, and Roy H. Wilkens

Related authors

Paleogene Earth perturbations in the US Atlantic Coastal Plain (PEP-US): coring transects of hyperthermals to understand past carbon injections and ecosystem responses
Marci M. Robinson, Kenneth G. Miller, Tali L. Babila, Timothy J. Bralower, James V. Browning, Marlow J. Cramwinckel, Monika Doubrawa, Gavin L. Foster, Megan K. Fung, Sean Kinney, Maria Makarova, Peter P. McLaughlin, Paul N. Pearson, Ursula Röhl, Morgan F. Schaller, Jean M. Self-Trail, Appy Sluijs, Thomas Westerhold, James D. Wright, and James C. Zachos
Sci. Dril., 33, 47–65, https://doi.org/10.5194/sd-33-47-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/sd-33-47-2024, 2024
Short summary
Nature and origin of variations in pelagic carbonate production in the tropical ocean since the mid-Miocene (ODP Site 927)
Pauline Cornuault, Thomas Westerhold, Heiko Pälike, Torsten Bickert, Karl-Heinz Baumann, and Michal Kucera
Biogeosciences, 20, 597–618, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-597-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-597-2023, 2023
Short summary
Precessional pacing of tropical ocean carbon export during the Late Cretaceous
Ji-Eun Kim, Thomas Westerhold, Laia Alegret, Anna Joy Drury, Ursula Röhl, and Elizabeth M. Griffith
Clim. Past, 18, 2631–2641, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-2631-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-2631-2022, 2022
Short summary
Climate, cryosphere and carbon cycle controls on Southeast Atlantic orbital-scale carbonate deposition since the Oligocene (30–0 Ma)
Anna Joy Drury, Diederik Liebrand, Thomas Westerhold, Helen M. Beddow, David A. Hodell, Nina Rohlfs, Roy H. Wilkens, Mitchell Lyle, David B. Bell, Dick Kroon, Heiko Pälike, and Lucas J. Lourens
Clim. Past, 17, 2091–2117, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-2091-2021,https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-2091-2021, 2021
Short summary
Late Miocene to Holocene high-resolution eastern equatorial Pacific carbonate records: stratigraphy linked by dissolution and paleoproductivity
Mitchell Lyle, Anna Joy Drury, Jun Tian, Roy Wilkens, and Thomas Westerhold
Clim. Past, 15, 1715–1739, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-15-1715-2019,https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-15-1715-2019, 2019
Short summary

Related subject area

Subject: Feedback and Forcing | Archive: Marine Archives | Timescale: Cenozoic
Biotic response of plankton communities to Middle to Late Miocene monsoon wind and nutrient flux changes in the Oman margin upwelling zone
Gerald Auer, Or M. Bialik, Mary-Elizabeth Antoulas, Noam Vogt-Vincent, and Werner E. Piller
Clim. Past, 19, 2313–2340, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-2313-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-2313-2023, 2023
Short summary
Polar amplification of orbital-scale climate variability in the early Eocene greenhouse world
Chris D. Fokkema, Tobias Agterhuis, Danielle Gerritsma, Myrthe de Goeij, Xiaoqing Liu, Pauline de Regt, Addison Rice, Laurens Vennema, Claudia Agnini, Peter K. Bijl, Joost Frieling, Matthew Huber, Francien Peterse, and Appy Sluijs
Clim. Past Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-2023-70,https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-2023-70, 2023
Revised manuscript accepted for CP
Short summary
North Atlantic marine biogenic silica accumulation through the early to middle Paleogene: implications for ocean circulation and silicate weathering feedback
Jakub Witkowski, Karolina Bryłka, Steven M. Bohaty, Elżbieta Mydłowska, Donald E. Penman, and Bridget S. Wade
Clim. Past, 17, 1937–1954, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-1937-2021,https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-1937-2021, 2021
Short summary
Global mean surface temperature and climate sensitivity of the early Eocene Climatic Optimum (EECO), Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), and latest Paleocene
Gordon N. Inglis, Fran Bragg, Natalie J. Burls, Margot J. Cramwinckel, David Evans, Gavin L. Foster, Matthew Huber, Daniel J. Lunt, Nicholas Siler, Sebastian Steinig, Jessica E. Tierney, Richard Wilkinson, Eleni Anagnostou, Agatha M. de Boer, Tom Dunkley Jones, Kirsty M. Edgar, Christopher J. Hollis, David K. Hutchinson, and Richard D. Pancost
Clim. Past, 16, 1953–1968, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-1953-2020,https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-1953-2020, 2020
Short summary
Dynamics of sediment flux to a bathyal continental margin section through the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum
Tom Dunkley Jones, Hayley R. Manners, Murray Hoggett, Sandra Kirtland Turner, Thomas Westerhold, Melanie J. Leng, Richard D. Pancost, Andy Ridgwell, Laia Alegret, Rob Duller, and Stephen T. Grimes
Clim. Past, 14, 1035–1049, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-1035-2018,https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-1035-2018, 2018
Short summary

Cited articles

Agnini, C., Fornaciari, E., Raffi, I., Rio, D., Röhl, U., and Westerhold, T.: High-resolution nannofossil biochronology of middle Paleocene to early Eocene at ODP Site 1262: Implications for calcareous nannoplankton evolution, Marine Micropaleontol., 64, 215–248, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marmicro.2007.05.003, 2007.
Agnini, C., Macri, P., Backman, J., Brinkhuis, H., Fornaciari, E., Giusberti, L., Luciani, V., Rio, D., Sluijs, A., and Speranza, F.: An early Eocene carbon cycle perturbation at 52.5 Ma in the Southern Alps: Chronology and biotic response, Paleoceanography, 24, PA2209, https://doi.org/10.1029/2008pa001649, 2009.
Agnini, C., Fornaciari, E., Raffi, I., Catanzariti, R., Pälike, H., Backman, J., and Rio, D.: Biozonation and biochronology of Paleogene calcareous nannofossils from low and middle latitudes, Newsl. Stratigr., 47, 131–181, https://doi.org/10.1127/0078-0421/2014/0042, 2014.
Aubry, M. P., Ouda, K., Dupuis, C., Berggren, W. A., Van Couvering, J. A., and the Members of the Working Group on the Paleocene/Eocene Boundary: The Global Standard Stratotype-section and Point (GSSP) for the base of the Eocene Series in the Dababiya section (Egypt), Episodes, 30, 271–286, 2007.
Backman, J. and Shackleton, N. J.: Quantitative biochonology of Pliocene and early Pleistocene calcareous nannofossils from the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Mar. Micropaleontol., 8, 141–170, 1983.
Download
Short summary
We assembled a very accurate geological timescale from the interval 47.8 to 56.0 million years ago, also known as the Ypresian stage. We used cyclic variations in the data caused by periodic changes in Earthäs orbit around the sun as a metronome for timescale construction. Our new data compilation provides the first geological evidence for chaos in the long-term behavior of planetary orbits in the solar system, as postulated almost 30 years ago, and a possible link to plate tectonics events.