Latest Paleocene to early Eocene hyperthermals, especially the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), provide the clearest geological examples of massive carbon releases and global warming analogous to anthropogenic release, but understating of these analogs is limited in thin deep-sea sections. This project will drill expanded sections in the mid-Atlantic U.S. Coastal Plain targeting thick (>10 m) sections of PETM and subsequent Eocene hyperthermals, building on drilling in New Jersey (NJ) during Ocean Drilling Program Leg 174AX and in Maryland-Virginia by the USGS.
Previous drilling has sampled across the paleoshelf and provided important constraints on the PETM, but existing cores are either depleted or contain stratigraphic gaps due to the patchwork distribution of the successions, updip dissolution, diagenesis, and the discontinuous nature of coastal zone sedimentation, which can be addressed with new cores.

Keywords: North America, USA, US Atlantic Coastal Plain, Carbon Injection, Global Warming, PETM