National Oceanography Centre, United Kingdom

Eocene Thermal Maximum 2 (ETM2) and H2 were two short-lived global warming events that occurred approximately 2 m.y. after the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum (PETM, ca. 56 Ma). We have generated benthic foraminiferal stable carbon and oxygen isotope records of four sites along a depth transect on Walvis Ridge ( approximately 3.5-1.5 km paleodepth, southeast Atlantic Ocean) and one site on Maud Rise (Weddell Sea) to constrain the pattern and magnitude of their carbon isotope excursions (CIEs) and deep-sea warming. At all sites, ETM2 is characterized by approximately 3 degrees C warming and a -1.4 per mil CIE. The H2 event that occurred approximately 100 k.y. later is associated with approximately 2 degrees C warming and a -0.8 per mil CIE. The magnitudes of the delta (super 13) C and delta (super 18) O excursions of both events are significantly smaller than those during the PETM, but their coherent relation indicates that the delta (super 13) C change of the exogenic carbon pool was similarly related to warming during these events, despite the much more gradual and transitioned onset of ETM2 and H2.