The Paleocene-Eocene transition at Mead Stream, New Zealand: a southern Pacific record of early Cenozoic global change

Compacted sedimentation rates vary between 1.4-2.7 cm/kyr for upper Paleocene-lower Eocene strata at Mead Stream. Although individual beds with average thickness of ∼10 cm were deposited too fast to directly represent cycles in orbital parameters, time series analysis of bed thicknesses suggests that groups of beds may record Milankovitch-scale periodicity, perhaps with a significant obliquity component. Thus, the relative frequency and thickness of marl and limestone beds in this section is shown to be strongly influenced by climatic changes at a wide range of temporal scales, from suborbital and orbital cycles to aberrant short-term events and long-term trends. Predominance of marl in IETM and EECO intervals indicates that episodes of extreme global warming resulted in reduced oceanic productivity and increased terrestrial discharge in the high-latitude southwestern Pacific.