The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum
In Our Time: Science
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The Impact of Ocean Circulation on the Distribution of Heat
There was also a gap between North America and South America, so the Panama Isymouth was open. That allowed for exchange between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean that we don't see in the modern day either. And one of the things we think happened in the pelicine, Eocene thermal maximum, is this kind of background state where we were generating deep waters in the Southern Ocean suddenly flipped. It's quite complicated in terms of trying to get a handle on that because trying to understand how ocean circulation worked in the past is difficult.
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