Abstract
The Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), which is the largest warming event that occurred in the early Palaeogene, has been gaining attention as a palaeo-analogue for ongoing global warming. Although the cause of PETM is debatable, emplacement of the North Atlantic Igneous Province (NAIP) is considered to play a critical role in triggering PETM. Thus, understanding the activity of NAIP is essential for revealing the mechanisms of PETM occurrence and elucidating the linkages between the activity of large igneous provinces and environmental changes on the Earth's surface. To this end, we focused on the mercury (Hg) concentrations in sediments, which have been utilised as a proxy for volcanism in the past, to estimate the magnitude and spatial extent of the influence of NAIP volcanism. In this presentation, we report Hg concentration data across the PETM interval from carbonate sediment cores recovered from four sites in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Furthermore, by comparing these results with existing records from the Atlantic Ocean, we evaluate the temporal and spatial extent of NAIP activity and discuss its potential linkage to the onset of PETM.
