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