Atmospheric carbon dioxide is a primary driver of global temperature change, but the efforts to decrease the anthropogenic emissions from fossil fuel burning are failing. The rates of fossil fuel CO2 emissions are increasing up to 3.7% per year in the following decade, resulting in a perturbation to the carbon cycle that have no precedent in geological records. During the past 65 Myr, the Earth experienced different carbon cycle perturbations associated with large climate variations, including the transition from an ice-free planet to the onset of the Pleistocene glacial¿interglacial cycles. Volcanic activity can modify the ocean-atmosphere system by introducing gases and particulates, promoting warmer or cooler climates and perturbing the structure and chemistry of the oceans. In the fossil record, carbon cycle perturbations are recorded in the stable carbon isotope composition of carbonate rocks and organic matter. This perturbation is recorded as a C isotope excursion. The shallow carbon cycle is also strictly connected with a deep cycle, involving upper mantle dynamics, even less understood from the scientific community.
This project follows an interdisciplinary approach to analyse product of the processes linked to the climate changes and carbon cycle perturbations occurred between the middle Eocene and the Miocene. Two are the main goals of this project: 1) to individuate the processes occurring during the main climate transition starting from carbon and calcium isotope excursion and changes in the carbonate production in the shallow water domain; 2) to clarify the origin of the Ca- and CO2-rich magma origin to distinguish the involvement of carbon in terms of deep or shallow cycles.
