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About BBCP

Wyoming's Bighorn Basin preserves an unusually complete stratigraphic record of early Paleogene time (~65-50 Ma). The Bighorn Basin Coring Project (BBCP) drilled a series of cores in the basin to better document the interplay between climatic, biotic, and geologic change during this period of global greenhouse conditions.

Scientific Goals

  1. Produce detailed stratigraphic records of ancient global warming events ("hyperthermals") from the sedimentary deposits of the Bighorn Basin.
  2. Apply state-of-the-art geochemical, geophysical, sedimentological, and paleontological methods on these records to help constrain the cause(s) of hyperthermal events.
  3. Investigate the relationship between climatic, biotic, and sedimentary change in continental environments.
  4. Communicate scientific results to the wider public through outreach and engaged scholarship.

BBCP Map

Geological map of Bighorn Basin showing location of three drilling targets.
Base map is a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and colors represent different
geological formations.