The need for much improved knowledge of the durations and ages of climatic and geological events, such as the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (∼55 million years ago), has become urgent ...

This period of warmth is called the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum. If the PETM is like a fencepost driven into the temperature hillside, the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum is like the crest of the ...