title: Northern Illinois University shooting

text: On October 2, 2009, a metal sculpture designed by artist Bruce Niemi entitled "Remembered" was unveiled at Northern Illinois University. The sculpture is part of a garden built in remembrance of the victims of the NIU shooting, located directly across from Cole Hall. The memorial area also features five red granite walls erected in a half-circle pattern which read "Forward Together Forward Together Forward." The phrase "Forward Together Forward", borrowed from the university's fight song, became a motto and theme used in the healing of the NIU community after the shooting. Each wall features the name of one of the students who died in the shooting. A walking path with benches is also included. The memorial is flanked by trees and shrubbery. The memorial was funded entirely by private donations.


title: Northern Illinois University shooting

text: The campus was shut down on December 10, 2007, the first day during exam week, after graffiti was found on a restroom wall warning of a possible shooting. A university spokesman said that the warning, which was discovered December 10, made reference to the Virginia Tech massacre, in which 33 people were killed, but it could not be immediately determined whether the threat was related to the shootings on February 14, 2008. The "Chicago Sun-Times" reported at that time that an unknown person posted the graffiti in the Grant Towers D residence hall, which included a racial slur and the notation "What time? The VA tech shooters messed up w/ having only one shooter." However, NIU President John Peters stated that he did not believe that the December incident is connected to the February 14 shootings.


title: The Pallbearer

text: The Pallbearer is a 1996 American romantic comedy film co-written and directed by Matt Reeves in his directorial debut and starring David Schwimmer, Gwyneth Paltrow, Toni Collette, Michael Vartan, Michael Rapaport, and Barbara Hershey. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival.


title: The Pallbearer

text: Tom Thompson, 25, still lives with his mother. A former high school classmate's mother, Ruth Abernathy, calls to say his "best friend," Bill, committed suicide, asking him to give his eulogy. Not remembering him, nevertheless he agrees to be a pallbearer. Meanwhile, his high school crush, Julie DeMarco, reappears in town.


title: The Pallbearer

text: At the funeral, Tom's vague and impersonal eulogy confuses the Abernathys and amuses his friends. Julie, upset at their disrespect, tries to leave as they carry Bill's coffin out of the church. Tom drags the coffin and the rest of the pallbearers after Julie. Asking if she knew Bill; she admits she didn't but was saddened to see him in the coffin. Asking her out upsets Bill's relatives, so he's forcefully relieved of his duties as pallbearer. Visibly upset, Ruth tells Tom he is in Bill's will.


title: The Pallbearer

text: Afterwards, Tom calls Julie and she requests Scott and Cynthia come along for a double date. At dinner, Julie and Scott click, while conversation between Tom and Julie is stilted. Scott mentions that Tom still lives with his mother.


title: The Pallbearer

text: Disgusted by Scott, Tom reluctantly drives Julie home. Arriving, she reveals she remembers him in high school. As Tom leans in for a kiss, Julie turns and they knock heads. She apologizes for giving off the wrong signals, as she is moving away.


title: The Pallbearer

text: Rejected at his second job interview, Tom goes to Ruth's to help pack Bill's room. Looking through old photos of Bill, they kiss and have sex. She tells him about Bill's father, who died in the war. Tom tells Ruth about Bill's fictitious love interest based completely on his own infatuation with Julie, and they continue to see each other.


title: The Pallbearer

text: Tom spies on Julie working at a record store from his car. One day, at closing time, he sees her let Scott into the store, who then kisses her. When Scott sees Tom, he drives off.


title: The Pallbearer

text: The next morning, Julie tells Tom about Scott's kiss, not knowing he had witnessed it. Reminiscing about high school band, she tells him she wants to just drive away for a year to be on her own. Julie then invites Tom to a concert.


title: The Pallbearer

text: Arriving at Ruth's, Tom is rushed to an Abernathy family gathering. He realizes Ruth had overheard him talking to Julie about their date later that evening. When Tom's car breaks down, Julie finds Ruth's charm bracelet, so he tells her he has been helping Bill Abernathy's mother since the funeral. She mistakenly assumes it's an innocent friendship.


title: The Pallbearer

text: After a tow truck takes Tom and Julie back to his house, as he sneaks into his mother's room to get her car keys, she enters his room. Tom reveals he once wanted to dance with her at a school dance and she kisses him. Falling into Tom's bed, Ruth calls, knowing Julie is there with him.


title: The Pallbearer

text: When Tom seeks advice from Brad, he suggests mailing the bracelet with a letter to end things with Ruth. He does so and continues dating Julie. On her birthday, she asks him to meet her parents. That morning, Tom sees Ruth with the envelope and sneaks away. At brunch with Julie's parents, her father disapproves of them. As Tom begs Julie to not leave for a year, Ruth barges into the restaurant, humiliating him.


title: The Pallbearer

text: At Brad's bachelor party, Tom makes a scene, telling him not to marry Lauren. Calling her an albatross around his neck and that Scott agrees. The next day, Scott apologizes to Tom and they reconcile. Talking about their childhood, they realize there was another Tom who moved away after junior high. So Tom brings the other Tom to Ruth, who appreciates the gesture to reminisce about her son. They both realize they needed someone at the time, Ruth mourning her son and Tom pining for his childhood crush.


title: The Pallbearer

text: At Brad's wedding, Tom patches his friendship with Brad approving of his marriage to Lauren, as Scott and Cynthia also reconcile. Tom also gives Julie his car keys for her trip. She hints that she wants to dance.


title: The Pallbearer

text: Miramax Films won an auction in October 1994 for the spec script written by Reeves and Jason Katims, initially paying $400,000. Reeves was known for co-writing "" and Katims as a story editor on the television show "My So-Called Life". J. J. Abrams supervised the writers during the writing process and co-produced the film.


title: The Pallbearer

text: "The Pallbearer" opened at number 9 at the US box office in its opening weekend (5/3-5) with $2,319,236. By the end of its run, the film had made $7,656,388 in the United States and Canada.


title: The Pallbearer

text: The review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes reported that 48% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 21 reviews, with an average rating of 5.1/10. The consensus summarizes: "Between a dark comedy and a romantic one, "The Pallbearer" confounds, and David Schwimmer's puppy dog eyes can't save the procession from going six feet under."


title: Sestertius

text: The sestertius (plural sestertii), or sesterce (plural sesterces), was an ancient Roman coin. During the Roman Republic it was a small, silver coin issued only on rare occasions. During the Roman Empire it was a large brass coin.


title: Sestertius

text: The name "sestertius" means "two and one half", referring to its nominal value of two and a half "asses" (a bronze Roman coin, singular "as"), a value that was useful for commerce because it was one quarter of a denarius, a coin worth ten "asses". The name is derived from "semis", "half" and "tertius", "third", in which "third" refers to the third "as": the sestertius was worth two full "asses" and half of a third.


title: Sestertius

text: English-language sources routinely use the original Latin form "sestertius", plural "sestertii"; but older literature frequently uses "sesterce", plural "sesterces", "terce" being the English equivalent of "tertius". A modern shorthand for values in sestertii is IIS (Unicode 𐆘), in which the Roman numeral "II" is followed by "S" for "semis", and the whole struck through; but because this symbol and striking through letters are not always convenient, HS may be used instead, with the horizontal bar of the 'H' representing the strike through the numeral "II", rather than the letter "H".


title: Sestertius

text: The sestertius was introduced c. 211 BC as a small silver coin valued at one-quarter of a denarius (and thus one hundredth of an aureus). A silver denarius was supposed to weigh about 4.5 grams, valued at ten "asses", with the silver sestertius valued at two and a half "asses" (1.125 grammes). In practice, the coins were usually underweight.


title: Sestertius

text: When the denarius was retariffed to sixteen "asses" (due to the gradual reduction in the size of bronze denominations), the sestertius was accordingly revalued to four "asses", still equal to one quarter of a denarius. It was produced sporadically, far less often than the denarius, through 44 BC.


title: Sestertius

text: In or about 23 BC, with the coinage reform of Augustus, the sestertius was reintroduced as a large brass denomination, while the "as", now made of copper, was worth one quarter of a sestertius. Augustus tariffed the value of the sestertius as one hundredth of the gold aureus. The sestertius was produced as the largest brass denomination until the late 3rd century AD. Most were struck in the mint of Rome but from AD 64 during the reign of Nero (AD 54–68) and Vespasian (AD 69–79), the mint of Lyon ("Lugdunum"), supplemented production. Lyon sestertii can be recognised by a small globe, or legend stop, beneath the bust.


title: Sestertius

text: The brass sestertius typically weighs in the region of 25 to 28 grams, is around 32–34 mm in diameter and about 4 mm thick. The distinction between bronze and brass was important to the Romans. Their name for brass was "orichalcum", also spelled "aurichalcum" (echoing the word for a gold coin, aureus), meaning 'gold-copper', because of its shiny, gold-like appearance when the coins were newly struck (see, for example Pliny the Elder in his "Natural History" Book 34.4).


title: Sestertius

text: Orichalcum was considered, by weight, to be about double the value of copper. This is why the half-sestertius, the dupondius, was around the same size and weight as the bronze was, but was worth two asses.


title: Sestertius

text: Sestertii continued to be struck until the late 3rd century, although there was a marked deterioration in the quality of the metal used and the striking even though portraiture remained strong. Later emperors increasingly relied on melting down older sestertii, a process which led to the zinc component being gradually lost as it burned off in the high temperatures needed to melt copper (zinc melts at 419 °C but boils at 907 °C, copper melts at 1085 °C). The shortfall was made up with bronze and even lead. Later sestertii tend to be darker in appearance as a result and are made from more crudely prepared blanks (see the Hostilian coin on this page).


title: Sestertius

text: The gradual impact of inflation caused by debasement of the silver currency meant that the purchasing power of the sestertius and smaller denominations like the dupondius and as was steadily reduced. In the 1st century AD, everyday small change was dominated by the dupondius and "as", but in the 2nd century, as inflation hit, the sestertius became the dominant small change. In the 3rd century silver coinage contained less and less silver, and more and more copper or bronze. By the 260s and 270s the main unit was the double-denarius, the Antoninianus, but by then these small coins were almost all bronze. Although these coins were theoretically worth eight sestertii, the average sestertius was worth far more in plain terms of the metal it contained.


title: Sestertius

text: Some of the last sestertii were struck by Aurelian (270–275 AD). During the end of its issue, when sestertii were reduced in size and quality, the double sestertius was issued first by Trajan Decius (249–251 AD) and later in large quantity by the ruler of a breakaway regime in the West, named Postumus (259–268 AD), who often used worn old sestertii to overstrike his image and legends on. The double sestertius was distinguished from the sestertius by the radiate crown worn by the emperor, a device used to distinguish the dupondius from the "as" and the Antoninianus from the denarius.


title: Sestertius

text: Eventually, many sestertii were withdrawn by the state and by forgers, to melt down to make the debased Antoninianus, which made inflation worse. In the coinage reforms of the 4th century, the sestertius played no part and passed into history.


title: Sestertius

text: The sestertius was also used as a standard unit of account and was represented on inscriptions with the monogram HS. Large values were recorded in terms of "sestertium milia", thousands of sestertii, with the "milia" often omitted and implied. The wealthy general and politician of the late Roman Republic, Crassus, who fought in the war to defeat Spartacus, was said by Pliny the Elder to have had "estates worth 200 million sesterces".


title: Sestertius

text: A loaf of bread cost roughly half a sestertius, and a sextarius (c. 0.5 L) of wine anywhere from less than half to more than one sestertius. One modius (6.67 kg) of wheat in 79 AD Pompeii cost seven sestertii, of rye three sestertii, a bucket two sestertii, a tunic fifteen sestertii, a donkey five hundred sestertii.


title: Sestertius

text: According to Tacitus' "Annals", book I, chapter 17.4 and 17.5, soldiers of the Rhine army who rose against Tiberius were paid ten "asses" a day, out of which they had to pay, among other things, for their own uniforms. They demanded to be paid a denarius a day, and they got it.


title: Sestertius

text: Records from Pompeii show a slave being sold at auction for 6,252 sestertii. A writing tablet from Londinium (Roman London), dated to c. 75–125 AD, records the sale of a Gallic slave girl called Fortunata for 600 denarii, equal to 2,400 sestertii, to a man called Vegetus. It is difficult to make any comparisons with modern coinage or prices, but for most of the 1st century AD, the ordinary legionary was paid nine hundred sestertii per annum, rising to twelve hundred under Domitian (81–96 AD), the equivalent of 3.3 sestertii per day. Half of it was deducted for living costs, leaving the soldier, if he was lucky enough to get paid, with about 1.65 sestertii per day.


title: Sestertius

text: Early brass sestertii are highly valued by numismatists, since their large size gave engravers a large area in which to produce detailed portraits and reverse types. The most celebrated are those produced for Nero (54–68 AD) between the years 64 and 68 AD, created by some of the most accomplished coin engravers in history. The brutally realistic portraits of this emperor, and the elegant reverse designs, greatly impressed and influenced the artists of the Renaissance. The series issued by Hadrian (117–138 AD), recording his travels around the Roman Empire, depicts the Empire at its height, and included the first representation on a coin of the figure of Britannia; centuries later it was revived by English king Charles II, and continues to feature on the United Kingdom coinage.


title: Sestertius

text: As a result of ceasing production and withdrawals from circulation in the 4th century, sestertii are less common as a whole compared to other Roman bronze coins. Fully struck examples with sharp detail often command high premiums at auction.


title: Jeffrey Rignall

text: Jeffrey D. Rignall (d. 2000) was an American memoirist who wrote "29 Below" about surviving a 1978 attack by serial killer John Wayne Gacy and his subsequent search to find his attacker. Rignall's testimony during Gacy's trial helped to secure the latter's conviction and death sentence. Rignall was profoundly affected both mentally and physically by the attack for the rest of his life. He died in 2000 at age 49.


title: Jeffrey Rignall

text: Jeffery D. Rignall was born in Kentucky, United States. He attended Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green. He worked as a building renovator.


title: Jeffrey Rignall

text: Rignall identified as bisexual and lived with his girlfriend as well as partner Ron Wilder, described by Rignall's attorney Fred R. Richman as a "live-in companion". While walking to a local gay bar in Rosemont, Illinois on March 21, 1978, 26-year-old Rignall encountered Gacy, who lured Rignall into his car by offering him a ride and to smoke a joint with him. Gacy then held a rag soaked in chloroform over Rignall's mouth until he passed out. Rignall woke up intermittently during the car ride to Gacy's house and recognized a few landmarks, but was chloroformed again and eventually lapsed into unconsciousness. Rignall said that when he awoke, he was inside Gacy's house. He was fastened to a torture device consisting of a wooden board laced with chains pinning Rignall's limbs. Gacy stood naked in front of him with an array of dildos and described in detail what he would do to Rignall with each of them. Gacy then brutally raped, drugged, whipped, and tortured Rignall. In later accounts, Rignall stated that there was another man in the room while Gacy raped him. Rignall regained consciousness the next day under a statue in Chicago's Lincoln Park. He made it back to his girlfriend's house and she took him to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he stayed for six days. In the hospital, Rignall recounted the experience to police, but they were skeptical of his story and Rignall was unable to identify his assailant.


title: Jeffrey Rignall

text: Rignall took on the investigation himself, staking out freeway exit ramps and overpasses in Northwest Chicago, looking for Gacy's black Oldsmobile. He eventually spotted Gacy, recorded his license plate number, and followed the car to Gacy's house in Norwood Park Township. Rignall provided police with the license plate number and address, but they did not act quickly on the information. Finally, in July 1978, the state's attorney's office filed a charge of battery against Gacy, but he was permitted to remain free. Rignall's case was never resolved in court. The battery charge was still pending in December of 1978 when 15-year-old Robert Piest vanished in Des Plaines, Illinois, after encountering Gacy at a pharmacy. The Des Plaines police quickly settled on Gacy as a suspect and found Rignall's charge on Gacy's rap sheet. Investigators contacted Rignall, but before they were able to interview him, Gacy was arrested and confessed. Between the date that Rignall's battery charge was filed and the date of the Des Plaines arrest, Gacy had murdered four more young men, including Piest.


title: Jeffrey Rignall

text: After Gacy's arrest, Rignall's assault charge against him was widely covered in the press. Other young men came forward with similar stories: that they too had been sexually assaulted or tortured by Gacy, and their reports to the Chicago police had been dismissed. The event, including recounting the experiences, affected Rignall greatly. He recounted he lost approximately 40 pounds, became severely withdrawn, and experienced depression and "bouts of vomiting." He began treatment for the mental health concerns and was placed on tranquillizers and sleeping drugs. By February 1980, his medical expenses had ballooned between $25,000-$30,000.


title: Jeffrey Rignall

text: Gacy was tried for murder in Chicago in 1980; Rignall appeared as a witness for the defense. Rignall supported the defense case by stating that in his opinion, Gacy was not legally sane at the time of the attack, citing "...the beastly and animalistic ways he attacked me". Gacy never fully acknowledged his attack on Rignall - he described most of his sexual assaults as consensual encounters - and never explained why he released Rignall alive, but killed at least 33 other men and boys. Gacy was sentenced to death, and was executed by lethal injection on May 10, 1994, at Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill.


title: Jeffrey Rignall

text: Rignall partnered with Wilder and ghostwriter Patricia Colander to write a memoir of his experience with Gacy and his investigative attempts to find the rapist afterward. The book, published by Wellington Press and titled "29 Below", was released in 1979. Wellington Press released a description of the book:


title: Jeffrey Rignall

text: A book release party was held in Chicago in July 1979, where Rignall, Wilder, and Colander mingled with guests, one of whom was Robert A. Roth, publisher of the "Chicago Reader". The book's first run sold through its 5,000 copies, and another release was planned. By 2021, the book was out of print and sold for hundreds of dollars on online retail platforms.


title: Jeffrey Rignall

text: Approximately a year and a half after the attack, Rignall and Wilder moved to the Louisville, Kentucky area so that Rignall could escape the memories of what happened to him. While in Louisville, he became reclusive and rarely left their apartment. He died in 2000 at age 49.


title: Marine Drive, Mumbai

text: Marine Drive is a 3 kilometre-long Promenade along the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Road in Mumbai, India. The road and promenade were constructed by Pallonji Mistry. It is a 'C'-shaped six-lane concrete road along the coast of a natural bay. At the northern end of Marine Drive is Girgaon Chowpatty and the adjacent road along links Nariman Point at southern tip to Babulnath and Malabar Hill at northern tip. Marine Drive is situated on reclaimed land facing west-south-west. Marine Drive is also known as the "Queen's Necklace" because, when viewed at night from an elevated point anywhere along the drive, the street lights resemble a string of pearls in a necklace.


title: Marine Drive, Mumbai

text: The official name for this road, though rarely used, is "Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Road". The promenade is lined with palm trees. At the northern end of Marine Drive is Chowpatty Beach. This is a popular beach famed for its Bhel Puri (local fast food). Many restaurants also line this stretch of the road. Further down this road lies Walkeshwar, a wealthy neighborhood of the city, also home to the Governor of Maharashtra.


title: Marine Drive, Mumbai

text: Most of the buildings erected by wealthy Parsis were constructed in an art deco style, which was popular in the 1920s and 1930s. Among the earliest art deco buildings on Marine Drive were the Kapur Mahal, Zaver Mahal and Keval Mahal, built between 1937 and 1939 for a total cost of 1 million rupees.


title: Marine Drive, Mumbai

text: Real estate prices along the Esplanade are high. Many hotels dot the drive, most prominent among them being the 5-star Oberoi (formerly the "Oberoi Hilton Tower" however reverted to the original name as of early 2008), The Intercontinental, Hotel Marine Plaza, Sea Green Hotel and a few other smaller hotels. Marine Drive is the preferred connecting road between the central business district located at Nariman Point and the rest of the city.


title: Marine Drive, Mumbai

text: Many Sports Clubs, some of cricket stadium and club grounds are situated along the stretch of Marine Drive, including members-only clubs like the Cricket Club of India (CCI), adjoining the Brabourne Stadium, Hindu Gymkhana Ground and Garware Club House, adjacent to the famous Wankhede Stadium, as well as others like the Mumbai Police Gymkhana, Hindu Gymkhana, Parsi Gymkhana and Islam Gymkhana.


title: Marine Drive, Mumbai

text: A well known singer from the 1950s, Suraiya lived in a building on the stretch known as 'Krishna Mahal' in the ground-floor apartment (as a tenant of Shah family) from 1940s until her death on 31 January 2004. The house was first taken on rent by her mother, Mumtaz Begum. Many other film stars, such as Nargis and Raj Kapoor, lived nearby in the 1940s and 50s.


title: Marine Drive, Mumbai

text: In 2012, the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai announced that the entire road would be resurfaced, 72 years after it was originally laid. A number of bollards were also installed as there was nothing to prevent accidents or attacks. A few years earlier, the footpaths were renovated.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: The Paleocene–Eocene thermal maximum (PETM), alternatively (ETM1), and formerly known as the "Initial Eocene" or "", was a time period with a more than 5–8 °C global average temperature rise across the event. This climate event occurred at the time boundary of the Paleocene and Eocene geological epochs. The exact age and duration of the event is uncertain but it is estimated to have occurred around 55.5 million years ago.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: The associated period of massive carbon release into the atmosphere has been estimated to have lasted from 20,000 to 50,000 years. The entire warm period lasted for about 200,000 years. Global temperatures increased by 5–8 °C.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: The onset of the Paleocene–Eocene thermal maximum has been linked to volcanism and uplift associated with the North Atlantic Igneous Province, causing extreme changes in Earth's carbon cycle and a significant temperature rise. The period is marked by a prominent negative excursion in carbon stable isotope () records from around the globe; more specifically, there was a large decrease in C/C ratio of marine and terrestrial carbonates and organic carbon. Paired , , and data suggest that of carbon (at least e) were released over 50,000 years, averaging per year.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: Stratigraphic sections of rock from this period reveal numerous other changes. Fossil records for many organisms show major turnovers. For example, in the marine realm, a mass extinction of benthic foraminifera, a global expansion of subtropical dinoflagellates, and an appearance of excursion, planktic foraminifera and calcareous nanofossils all occurred during the beginning stages of PETM. On land, modern mammal orders (including primates) suddenly appear in Europe and in North America. Sediment deposition changed significantly at many outcrops and in many drill cores spanning this time interval.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: Since at least 1997, the Paleocene–Eocene thermal maximum has been investigated in geoscience as an analog to understand the effects of global warming and of massive carbon inputs to the ocean and atmosphere, including ocean acidification. Humans today emit about 10 Gt of carbon (about 37 Gt CO2e) per year, and will have released a comparable amount in about 1,000 years at that rate. A main difference is that during the Paleocene–Eocene thermal maximum, the planet was ice-free, as the Drake Passage had not yet opened and the Central American Seaway had not yet closed. Although the PETM is now commonly held to be a "case study" for global warming and massive carbon emission, the cause, details, and overall significance of the event remain uncertain.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: The configuration of oceans and continents was somewhat different during the early Paleogene relative to the present day. The Panama Isthmus did not yet connect North America and South America, and this allowed direct low-latitude circulation between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. The Drake Passage, which now separates South America and Antarctica, was closed, and this perhaps prevented thermal isolation of Antarctica. The Arctic was also more restricted. Although various proxies for past atmospheric levels in the Eocene do not agree in absolute terms, all suggest that levels then were much higher than at present. In any case, there were no significant ice sheets during this time.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: Earth surface temperatures increased by about 6 °C from the late Paleocene through the early Eocene, culminating in the "Early Eocene Climatic Optimum" (EECO). Superimposed on this long-term, gradual warming were at least two (and probably more) "hyperthermals". These can be defined as geologically brief (<200,000 year) events characterized by rapid global warming, major changes in the environment, and massive carbon addition. Though not the first within the Cenozoic, the PETM was the most extreme of these hyperthermals. Another hyperthermal clearly occurred at approximately 53.7 Ma, and is now called ETM-2 (also referred to as H-1, or the Elmo event). However, additional hyperthermals probably occurred at about 53.6 Ma (H-2), 53.3 (I-1), 53.2 (I-2) and 52.8 Ma (informally called K, X or ETM-3). The number, nomenclature, absolute ages, and relative global impact of the Eocene hyperthermals are the source of considerable current research. Whether they only occurred during the long-term warming, and whether they are causally related to apparently similar events in older intervals of the geological record (e.g. the Toarcian turnover of the Jurassic) are open issues.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: Acidification of deep waters, and the later spreading from the North Atlantic can explain spatial variations in carbonate dissolution. Model simulations show acidic water accumulation in the deep North Atlantic at the onset of the event.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: At the start of the PETM, average global temperatures increased by approximately 6 °C (11 °F) within about 20,000 years. This warming was superimposed on "long-term" early Paleogene warming, and is based on several lines of evidence. There is a prominent (>1‰) negative excursion in the of foraminifera shells, both those made in surface and deep ocean water. Because there was little or no polar ice in the early Paleogene, the shift in very probably signifies a rise in ocean temperature.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: The temperature rise is also supported by analyses of fossil assemblages, the Mg/Ca ratios of foraminifera, and the ratios of certain organic compounds, such as TEX. TEX values indicate that the average sea surface temperature (SST) reached over in the tropics during the PETM, enough to cause heat stress in even in organisms resistant to extreme thermal stress, such as dinoflagellates, of which a significant number of species went extinct. TEX values from deposits in New Zealand, then located between 50°S and 60°S in the southwestern Pacific, indicate SSTs of to , an increase of over from an average of to at the boundary between the Selandian and Thanetian.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: Precise limits on the global temperature rise during the PETM and whether this varied significantly with latitude remain open issues. Oxygen isotope and Mg/Ca of carbonate shells precipitated in surface waters of the ocean are commonly used measurements for reconstructing past temperature; however, both paleotemperature proxies can be compromised at low latitude locations, because re-crystallization of carbonate on the seafloor renders lower values than when formed. On the other hand, these and other temperature proxies (e.g., TEX) are impacted at high latitudes because of seasonality; that is, the "temperature recorder" is biased toward summer, and therefore higher values, when the production of carbonate and organic carbon occurred.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: Certainly, the central Arctic Ocean was ice-free before, during, and after the PETM. This can be ascertained from the composition of sediment cores recovered during the Arctic Coring Expedition (ACEX) at 87°N on Lomonosov Ridge. Moreover, temperatures increased during the PETM, as indicated by the brief presence of subtropical dinoflagellates, and a marked increase in TEX. The latter record is intriguing, though, because it suggests a 6 °C (11 °F) rise from ~ before the PETM to ~ during the PETM. Assuming the TEX record reflects summer temperatures, it still implies much warmer temperatures on the North Pole compared to the present day, but no significant latitudinal amplification relative to surrounding time.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: The above considerations are important because, in many global warming simulations, high latitude temperatures increase much more at the poles through an ice–albedo feedback. It may be the case, however, that during the PETM, this feedback was largely absent because of limited polar ice, so temperatures on the Equator and at the poles increased similarly.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: Clear evidence for massive addition of C-depleted carbon at the onset of the PETM comes from two observations. First, a prominent negative excursion in the carbon isotope composition () of carbon-bearing phases characterizes the PETM in numerous (>130) widespread locations from a range of environments. Second, carbonate dissolution marks the PETM in sections from the deep sea.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: The total mass of carbon injected to the ocean and atmosphere during the PETM remains the source of debate. In theory, it can be estimated from the magnitude of the negative carbon isotope excursion (CIE), the amount of carbonate dissolution on the seafloor, or ideally both. However, the shift in the across the PETM depends on the location and the carbon-bearing phase analyzed. In some records of bulk carbonate, it is about 2‰ (per mil); in some records of terrestrial carbonate or organic matter it exceeds 6‰.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: Carbonate dissolution also varies throughout different ocean basins. It was extreme in parts of the north and central Atlantic Ocean, but far less pronounced in the Pacific Ocean.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: With available information, estimates of the carbon addition range from about 2,000 to 7,000 gigatons.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: Model simulations of peak carbon addition to the ocean–atmosphere system during the PETM give a probable range of 0.3–1.7 petagrams of carbon per year (Pg C/yr), which is much slower than the currently observed rate of carbon emissions. It has been suggested that today's methane emission regime from the ocean floor is potentially similar to that during the PETM. (One petagram of carbon = 1 gigaton of carbon, GtC; the current rate of carbon injection into the atmosphere is over 10 GtC/yr, much larger than the carbon injection rate that occurred during the PETM.)


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: Professor of Earth and planetary sciences James Zachos notes that IPCC projections for 2300 in the 'business-as-usual' scenario could "potentially bring global temperature to a level the planet has not seen in 50 million years" – during the early Eocene. Some have described the PETM as arguably the best ancient analog of modern climate change. Scientists have investigated effects of climate change on chemistry of the oceans by exploring oceanic changes during the PETM.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: A study found that the PETM shows that substantial climate-shifting tipping points in the Earth system exist, which "can trigger release of additional carbon reservoirs and drive Earth's climate into a hotter state".


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: A 2022 study found that the Eurasian Epicontinental Sea acted as a major carbon sink during the PETM due to its high biological productivity and helped to slow and mitigate the warming, and that the existence of many large epicontinental seas at that time made the Earth's climate less sensitive to forcing by greenhouse gases relative to today, when much fewer epicontinental seas exist.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: The timing of the PETM excursion is of considerable interest. This is because the total duration of the CIE, from the rapid drop in through the near recovery to initial conditions, relates to key parameters of our global carbon cycle, and because the onset provides insight to the source of C-depleted .


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: The total duration of the CIE can be estimated in several ways. The iconic sediment interval for examining and dating the PETM is a core recovered in 1987 by the Ocean Drilling Program at Hole 690B at Maud Rise in the South Atlantic Ocean. At this location, the PETM CIE, from start to end, spans about 2 m. Long-term age constraints, through biostratigraphy and magnetostratigraphy, suggest an average Paleogene sedimentation rate of about 1.23 cm/1,000yrs. Assuming a constant sedimentation rate, the entire event, from onset though termination, was therefore estimated at 200,000 years. Subsequently, it was noted that the CIE spanned 10 or 11 subtle cycles in various sediment properties, such as Fe content. Assuming these cycles represent precession, a similar but slightly longer age was calculated by Rohl et al. 2000. A ~200,000 year duration for the CIE is estimated from models of global carbon cycling. If a massive amount of C-depleted is rapidly injected into the modern ocean or atmosphere and projected into the future, a ~200,000 year CIE results because of slow flushing through quasi steady-state inputs (weathering and volcanism) and outputs (carbonate and organic) of carbon.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: The above approach can be performed at many sections containing the PETM. This has led to an intriguing result. At some locations (mostly deep-marine), sedimentation rates must have decreased across the PETM, presumably because of carbonate dissolution on the seafloor; at other locations (mostly shallow-marine), sedimentation rates must have increased across the PETM, presumably because of enhanced delivery of riverine material during the event.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: Age constraints at several deep-sea sites have been independently examined using He contents, assuming the flux of this cosmogenic nuclide is roughly constant over short time periods. This approach also suggests a rapid onset for the PETM CIE (<20,000 years). However, the He records support a faster recovery to near initial conditions (<100,000 years) than predicted by flushing via weathering inputs and carbonate and organic outputs.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: The climate would also have become much wetter, with the increase in evaporation rates peaking in the tropics. Deuterium isotopes reveal that much more of this moisture was transported polewards than normal. Warm weather would have predominated as far north as the Polar basin. Finds of fossils of "Azolla" floating ferns in polar regions indicate subtropic temperatures at the poles. Central China during the PETM hosted dense subtropical forests as a result of the significant increase in rates of precipitation in the region, with average temperatures between 21°C and 24°C and mean annual precipitation ranging from 1,396 to 1,997 mm. Very high precipitation is also evidenced in the Cambay Shale Formation of India by the deposition of thick lignitic seams as a consequence of increased soil erosion and organic matter burial.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: The amount of freshwater in the Arctic Ocean increased, in part due to northern hemisphere rainfall patterns, fueled by poleward storm track migrations under global warming conditions.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: In parts of the oceans, especially the north Atlantic Ocean, bioturbation was absent. This may be due to bottom-water anoxia, or by changing ocean circulation patterns changing the temperatures of the bottom water. However, many ocean basins remained bioturbated through the PETM.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: Along with the global lack of ice, the sea level would have risen due to thermal expansion. Evidence for this can be found in the shifting palynomorph assemblages of the Arctic Ocean, which reflect a relative decrease in terrestrial organic material compared to marine organic matter.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: At the start of the PETM, the ocean circulation patterns changed radically in the course of under 5,000 years. Global-scale current directions reversed due to a shift in overturning from the southern hemisphere to northern hemisphere overturning. This "backwards" flow persisted for 40,000 years. Such a change would transport warm water to the deep oceans, enhancing further warming.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: The lysocline marks the depth at which carbonate starts to dissolve (above the lysocline, carbonate is oversaturated): today, this is at about 4 km, comparable to the median depth of the oceans. This depth depends on (among other things) temperature and the amount of dissolved in the ocean. Adding initially raises the lysocline, resulting in the dissolution of deep water carbonates. This deep-water acidification can be observed in ocean cores, which show (where bioturbation has not destroyed the signal) an abrupt change from grey carbonate ooze to red clays (followed by a gradual grading back to grey). It is far more pronounced in north Atlantic cores than elsewhere, suggesting that acidification was more concentrated here, related to a greater rise in the level of the lysocline. In parts of the southeast Atlantic, the lysocline rose by 2 km in just a few thousand years. Evidence from the tropical Pacific Ocean suggests a minimum lysocline shoaling of around 500 m at the time of this hyperthermal.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: Stoichiometric magnetite () particles were obtained from PETM-age marine sediments. The study from 2008 found elongate prism and spearhead crystal morphologies, considered unlike any magnetite crystals previously reported, and are potentially of biogenic origin. These biogenic magnetite crystals show unique gigantism, and probably are of aquatic origin. The study suggests that development of thick suboxic zones with high iron bioavailability, the result of dramatic changes in weathering and sedimentation rates, drove diversification of magnetite-forming organisms, likely including eukaryotes. Biogenic magnetites in animals have a crucial role in geomagnetic field navigation.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: The PETM is accompanied by a mass extinction of 35–50% of benthic foraminifera (especially in deeper waters) over the course of ~1,000 years – the group suffering more than during the dinosaur-slaying K-T extinction (e.g.,). Contrarily, planktonic foraminifera diversified, and dinoflagellates bloomed. Success was also enjoyed by the mammals, who radiated extensively around this time.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: The deep-sea extinctions are difficult to explain, because many species of benthic foraminifera in the deep-sea are cosmopolitan, and can find refugia against local extinction. General hypotheses such as a temperature-related reduction in oxygen availability, or increased corrosion due to carbonate undersaturated deep waters, are insufficient as explanations. Acidification may also have played a role in the extinction of the calcifying foraminifera, and the higher temperatures would have increased metabolic rates, thus demanding a higher food supply. Such a higher food supply might not have materialized because warming and increased ocean stratification might have led to declining productivity and/or increased remineralization of organic matter in the water column, before it reached the benthic foraminifera on the sea floor. The only factor global in extent was an increase in temperature. Regional extinctions in the North Atlantic can be attributed to increased deep-sea anoxia, which could be due to the slowdown of overturning ocean currents, or the release and rapid oxidation of large amounts of methane. Oxygen minimum zones in the oceans may have expanded.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: In shallower waters, it's undeniable that increased levels result in a decreased oceanic pH, which has a profound negative effect on corals. Experiments suggest it is also very harmful to calcifying plankton. However, the strong acids used to simulate the natural increase in acidity which would result from elevated concentrations may have given misleading results, and the most recent evidence is that coccolithophores ("E. huxleyi" at least) become "more", not less, calcified and abundant in acidic waters. No change in the distribution of calcareous nanoplankton such as the coccolithophores can be attributed to acidification during the PETM. Acidification did lead to an abundance of heavily calcified algae and weakly calcified forams.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: A study published in May 2021 concluded that fish thrived in at least some tropical areas during the PETM, based on discovered fish fossils including "Mene maculata" at Ras Gharib, Egypt.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: Humid conditions caused migration of modern Asian mammals northward, dependent on the climatic belts. Uncertainty remains for the timing and tempo of migration.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: The increase in mammalian abundance is intriguing. Increased levels may have promoted dwarfing – which may have encouraged speciation. Many major mammalian orders – including the Artiodactyla, horses, and primates – appeared and spread around the globe 13,000 to 22,000 years after the initiation of the PETM.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: Proxy data from one of the studied sites show rapid +8 °C temperature rise, in accordance with existing regional records of marine and terrestrial environments. Notable is the absence of documented greater warming in polar regions compared to other regions. This implies a non-existing ice-albedo feedback, suggesting no sea or land ice was present in the late Paleocene.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: During the PETM, sediments are enriched with kaolinite from a detrital source due to denudation (initial processes such as volcanoes, earthquakes, and plate tectonics). This suggests increased precipitation, and enhanced erosion of older kaolinite-rich soils and sediments. Increased weathering from the enhanced runoff formed thick paleosoil enriched with carbonate nodules (Microcodium like), and this suggests a semi-arid climate.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: Discriminating between different possible causes of the PETM is difficult. Temperatures were rising globally at a steady pace, and a mechanism must be invoked to produce an instantaneous spike which may have been accentuated or catalyzed by positive feedback (or activation of "tipping or points"). The biggest aid in disentangling these factors comes from a consideration of the carbon isotope mass balance. We know the entire exogenic carbon cycle (i.e. the carbon contained within the oceans and atmosphere, which can change on short timescales) underwent a −0.2 % to −0.3 % perturbation in , and by considering the isotopic signatures of other carbon reserves, can consider what mass of the reserve would be necessary to produce this effect. The assumption underpinning this approach is that the mass of exogenic carbon was the same in the Paleogene as it is today – something which is very difficult to confirm.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: Although the cause of the initial warming has been attributed to a massive injection of carbon ( and/or CH) into the atmosphere, the source of the carbon has yet to be found. The emplacement of a large cluster of kimberlite pipes at ~56 Ma in the Lac de Gras region of northern Canada may have provided the carbon that triggered early warming in the form of exsolved magmatic . Calculations indicate that the estimated 900–1,100 Pg of carbon required for the initial approximately 3 °C of ocean water warming associated with the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum could have been released during the emplacement of a large kimberlite cluster. The transfer of warm surface ocean water to intermediate depths led to thermal dissociation of seafloor methane hydrates, providing the isotopically depleted carbon that produced the carbon isotopic excursion. The coeval ages of two other kimberlite clusters in the Lac de Gras field and two other early Cenozoic hyperthermals indicate that degassing during kimberlite emplacement is a plausible source of the responsible for these sudden global warming events.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: To balance the mass of carbon and produce the observed value, at least 1,500 gigatons of carbon would have to degas from the mantle via volcanoes over the course of the two, 1,000 year, steps. To put this in perspective, this is about 200 times the background rate of degassing for the rest of the Paleocene. There is no indication that such a burst of volcanic activity has occurred at any point in Earth's history. However, substantial volcanism had been active in East Greenland for around the preceding million years or so, but this struggles to explain the rapidity of the PETM. Even if the bulk of the 1,500 gigatons of carbon was released in a single pulse, further feedbacks would be necessary to produce the observed isotopic excursion.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: On the other hand, there are suggestions that surges of activity occurred in the later stages of the volcanism and associated continental rifting. Intrusions of hot magma into carbon-rich sediments may have triggered the degassing of isotopically light methane in sufficient volumes to cause global warming and the observed isotope anomaly. This hypothesis is documented by the presence of extensive intrusive sill complexes and thousands of kilometer-sized hydrothermal vent complexes in sedimentary basins on the mid-Norwegian margin and west of Shetland. Volcanic eruptions of a large magnitude can impact global climate, reducing the amount of solar radiation reaching the Earth's surface, lowering temperatures in the troposphere, and changing atmospheric circulation patterns. Large-scale volcanic activity may last only a few days, but the massive outpouring of gases and ash can influence climate patterns for years. Sulfuric gases convert to sulfate aerosols, sub-micron droplets containing about 75 percent sulfuric acid. Following eruptions, these aerosol particles can linger as long as three to four years in the stratosphere. Further phases of volcanic activity could have triggered the release of more methane, and caused other early Eocene warm events such as the ETM2. It has also been suggested that volcanic activity around the Caribbean may have disrupted the circulation of oceanic currents, amplifying the magnitude of climate change.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: A 2017 study noted strong evidence of a volcanic carbon source (greater than 10,000 petagrams of carbon), associated with the North Atlantic Igneous Province. A 2021 study found the PETM was directly preceded by volcanism.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: A briefly popular theory held that a C-rich comet struck the earth and initiated the warming event. A cometary impact coincident with the P/E boundary can also help explain some enigmatic features associated with this event, such as the iridium anomaly at Zumaia, the abrupt appearance of kaolinitic clays with abundant magnetic nanoparticles on the coastal shelf of New Jersey, and especially the nearly simultaneous onset of the carbon isotope excursion and the thermal maximum. Indeed, a key feature and testable prediction of a comet impact is that it should produce virtually instantaneous environmental effects in the atmosphere and surface ocean with later repercussions in the deeper ocean. Even allowing for feedback processes, this would require at least 100 gigatons of extraterrestrial carbon. Such a catastrophic impact should have left its mark on the globe. However, the evidence put forward does not stand up to scrutiny. An unusual 9-meter-thick clay layer supposedly formed soon after the impact, containing unusual amounts of magnetite, but it formed too slowly for these magnetic particles to have been a result of the comet's impact. and it turns out they were created by bacteria. However, recent analyses have shown that isolated particles of non-biogenic origin make up the majority of the magnetic particles in the thick clay unit.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: A 2016 report in "Science" describes the discovery of impact ejecta from three marine P-E boundary sections from the Atlantic margin of the eastern U.S., indicating that an extraterrestrial impact occurred during the carbon isotope excursion at the P-E boundary. The silicate glass spherules found were identified as microtektites and microkrystites.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: The combustion of prodigious quantities of peat was once postulated, because there was probably a greater mass of carbon stored as living terrestrial biomass during the Paleocene than there is today since plants in fact grew more vigorously during the period of the PETM. This theory was refuted, because in order to produce the excursion observed, over 90 percent of the Earth's biomass would have to have been combusted. However, the Paleocene is also recognized as a time of significant peat accumulation worldwide. A comprehensive search failed to find evidence for the combustion of fossil organic matter, in the form of soot or similar particulate carbon.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: The presence of later (smaller) warming events of a global scale, such as the Elmo horizon (aka ETM2), has led to the hypothesis that the events repeat on a regular basis, driven by maxima in the 400,000 and 100,000 year eccentricity cycles in the Earth's orbit. The current warming period is expected to last another 50,000 years due to a minimum in the eccentricity of the Earth's orbit. Orbital increase in insolation (and thus temperature) would force the system over a threshold and unleash positive feedbacks. The orbital forcing hypothesis has been challenged by a study finding the PETM to have coincided with a minimum in the ∼400 kyr eccentricity cycle, inconsistent with a proposed orbital trigger for the hyperthermal.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: The other theories are not fully sufficient to cause the carbon isotope excursion or warming observed at the PETM. The most obvious feedback mechanism that could amplify the initial perturbation is that of methane clathrates. Under certain temperature and pressure conditions, methane – which is being produced continually by decomposing microbes in sea bottom sediments – is stable in a complex with water, which forms ice-like cages trapping the methane in solid form. As temperature rises, the pressure required to keep this clathrate configuration stable increases, so shallow clathrates dissociate, releasing methane gas to make its way into the atmosphere. Since biogenic clathrates have a signature of −60 ‰ (inorganic clathrates are the still rather large −40 ‰), relatively small masses can produce large excursions. Further, methane is a potent greenhouse gas as it is released into the atmosphere, so it causes warming, and as the ocean transports this warmth to the bottom sediments, it destabilizes more clathrates.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: In order for the clathrate hypothesis to be applicable to PETM, the oceans must show signs of having been warmer slightly before the carbon isotope excursion, because it would take some time for the methane to become mixed into the system and -reduced carbon to be returned to the deep ocean sedimentary record. Up until the 2000s, the evidence suggested that the two peaks were in fact simultaneous, weakening the support for the methane theory. In 2002, a short gap between the initial warming and the excursion was detected. In 2007, chemical markers of surface temperature (TEX) had also indicated that warming occurred around 3,000 years before the carbon isotope excursion, although this did not seem to hold true for all cores. However, research in 2005 found no evidence of this time gap in the deeper (non-surface) waters. Moreover, the small apparent change in TEX that precede the anomaly can easily (and more plausibly) be ascribed to local variability (especially on the Atlantic coastal plain, e.g. Sluijs, et al., 2007) as the TEX paleo-thermometer is prone to significant biological effects. The of benthic or planktonic forams does not show any pre-warming in any of these localities, and in an ice-free world, it is generally a much more reliable indicator of past ocean temperatures.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: Analysis of these records reveals another interesting fact: planktonic (floating) forams record the shift to lighter isotope values earlier than benthic (bottom dwelling) forams. The lighter (lower ) methanogenic carbon can only be incorporated into the forams' shells after it has been oxidised. A gradual release of the gas would allow it to be oxidised in the deep ocean, which would make benthic forams show lighter values earlier. The fact that the planktonic forams are the first to show the signal suggests that the methane was released so rapidly that its oxidation used up all the oxygen at depth in the water column, allowing some methane to reach the atmosphere unoxidised, where atmospheric oxygen would react with it. This observation also allows us to constrain the duration of methane release to under around 10,000 years.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: However, there are several major problems with the methane hydrate dissociation hypothesis. The most parsimonious interpretation for surface-water forams to show the excursion before their benthic counterparts (as in the Thomas et al. paper) is that the perturbation occurred from the top down, and not the bottom up. If the anomalous (in whatever form: CH or ) entered the atmospheric carbon reservoir first, and then diffused into the surface ocean waters, which mix with the deeper ocean waters over much longer time-scales, we would expect to observe the planktonics shifting toward lighter values before the benthics. Moreover, careful examination of the Thomas et al. data set shows that there is not a single intermediate planktonic foram value, implying that the perturbation and attendant anomaly happened over the lifespan of a single foram – much too fast for the nominal 10,000-year release needed for the methane hypothesis to work.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: There has been some debate about whether there was a large enough amount of methane hydrate to be a major carbon source; a 2011 paper proposed that was the case. The present-day global methane hydrate reserve was once considered to be between 2,000 and 10,000 Gt C (billions of tons of carbon), but is now estimated between 1500–2000 Gt C. However, because the global ocean bottom temperatures were ~6 °C higher than today, which implies a much smaller volume of sediment hosting gas hydrate than today, the global amount of hydrate before the PETM has been thought to be much less than present-day estimates. in a 2006 study, scientists regarded the source of carbon for the PETM to be a mystery. A 2011 study, using numerical simulations suggests that enhanced organic carbon sedimentation and methanogenesis could have compensated for the smaller volume of hydrate stability.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: A 2016 study based on reconstructions of atmospheric content during the PETM's carbon isotope excursions (CIE), using triple oxygen isotope analysis, suggests a massive release of seabed methane into the atmosphere as the driver of climatic changes. The authors also note:


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: It was estimated in 2001 that it would take around 2,300 years for an increased temperature to diffuse warmth into the sea bed to a depth sufficient to cause a release of clathrates, although the exact time-frame is highly dependent on a number of poorly constrained assumptions. Ocean warming due to flooding and pressure changes due to a sea-level drop may have caused clathrates to become unstable and release methane. This can take place over as short of a period as a few thousand years. The reverse process, that of fixing methane in clathrates, occurs over a larger scale of tens of thousands of years. In 2019, a study suggested that there was a global warming of around 2 degrees several millennia before PETM, and that this warming had eventually destabilized methane hydrates and caused the increased carbon emission during PETM, as evidenced by the large increase in barium ocean concentrations (since PETM-era hydrate deposits would have been also been rich in barium, and would have released it upon their meltdown). In 2022, a foraminiferal records study had reinforced this conclusion, suggesting that the release of CO before PETM was comparable to the current anthropogenic emissions in its rate and scope, to the point that that there was enough time for a recovery to background levels of warming and ocean acidification in the centuries to millennia between the so-called pre-onset excursion (POE) and the main event (carbon isotope excursion, or CIE). A 2021 paper had further indicated that while PETM began with a significant intensification of volcanic activity and that lower-intensity volcanic activity sustained elevated carbon dioxide levels, "at least one other carbon reservoir released significant greenhouse gases in response to initial warming".


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: The large scale patterns of ocean circulation are important when considering how heat was transported through the oceans. Our understanding of these patterns is still in a preliminary stage. Models show that there are possible mechanisms to quickly transport heat to the shallow, clathrate-containing ocean shelves, given the right bathymetric profile, but the models cannot yet match the distribution of data we observe. "Warming accompanying a south-to-north switch in deepwater formation would produce sufficient warming to destabilize seafloor gas hydrates over most of the world ocean to a water depth of at least 1900 m." This destabilization could have resulted in the release of more than 2000 gigatons of methane gas from the clathrate zone of the ocean floor.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: Arctic freshwater input into the North Pacific could serve as a catalyst for methane hydrate destabilization, an event suggested as a precursor to the onset of the PETM.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: Climate proxies, such as ocean sediments (depositional rates) indicate a duration of ∼83 ka, with ∼33 ka in the early rapid phase and ∼50 ka in a subsequent gradual phase.


title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

text: The most likely method of recovery involves an increase in biological productivity, transporting carbon to the deep ocean. This would be assisted by higher global temperatures and levels, as well as an increased nutrient supply (which would result from higher continental weathering due to higher temperatures and rainfall; volcanoes may have provided further nutrients). Evidence for higher biological productivity comes in the form of bio-concentrated barium. However, this proxy may instead reflect the addition of barium dissolved in methane. Diversifications suggest that productivity increased in near-shore environments, which would have been warm and fertilized by run-off, outweighing the reduction in productivity in the deep oceans.


title: Love Story (novel)

text: Love Story is a 1970 novel by American writer Erich Segal. Segal wrote a screenplay that was subsequently approved for production by Paramount Pictures. Paramount requested that Segal adapt the story into a novel as part of the film's marketing campaign. The novel was released on February 14, 1970 (Valentine's Day), along with segments of the story which appeared in "The Ladies' Home Journal". "Love Story" became the top-selling work of fiction for the duration of 1970 in the United States and was translated into more than 20 languages. The novel stayed on "The New York Times" Best Seller list for 41 weeks, and peaked at number one. The film was released on December 16, 1970.


title: Love Story (novel)

text: "Love Story" is the tale of two college students who fall in love: Oliver Barrett IV, a jock and heir apparent to his father's business empire, and Jennifer Cavilleri, the quick-witted daughter of a Rhode Island baker. Oliver (Ollie) is at Harvard preparing to take over the family business, while Jennifer (Jenny) is a music major at Radcliffe College and planning to study in Paris. Although, divided by class, Oliver and Jenny are immediately attracted to each other and begin dating.


title: Love Story (novel)

text: Upon graduation from college, the two decide to marry, against the wishes of Oliver's father, who promptly severs all ties with his son. Without financial support from Oliver's family, the couple struggles to pay Oliver's tuition at Harvard Law School. Jenny begins working as a private school teacher. After graduating third in his class, Oliver gets several job offers and takes up a position at a respectable New York law firm. The couple move to New York City, excited to spend more time together, rather than working and studying. The pair decide to have a child. After Jenny fails to conceive, they consult a medical specialist, who after repeated tests, informs Oliver that Jenny has terminal leukemia.


title: Love Story (novel)

text: As instructed by their doctor, Oliver attempts to live a normal life without telling Jenny of her condition. Jenny suspects something is wrong, confronts the doctor, and discovers the truth. With their days together numbered, Oliver is desperate and seeks financial relief from his father, but lies about why he needs it. From her hospital bed, Jenny speaks with her father about funeral arrangements, and then asks for Oliver. She tells him to avoid blaming himself, and asks him to hold her tightly before she dies. When Oliver's father realizes that Jenny is ill and that his son borrowed the money for her, he immediately sets out for New York to reconcile with the couple. By the time he reaches the hospital, Jenny has died. Mr. Barrett apologizes to his son, who replies with something Jenny had once told him: "Love means never having to say you're sorry..." and breaks down in his arms.


title: Love Story (novel)

text: "New York" magazine in 1971 stated that Jenny resembled the "myopic, athletic, brisk princess" Brenda Patimkin in Philip Roth's "Goodbye, Columbus".


title: Love Story (novel)

text: It is sometimes said that Al Gore falsely claimed that the plot is based on his life at Harvard. In fact, Al Gore mentioned correctly, that he had read that the characters were based on him and his wife. In 1997, Segal confirmed Gore's account, explaining that he had been inaccurately quoted in the "Nashville Tennessean" and that "only the emotional family baggage of the romantic hero was inspired by a young Al Gore. But it was Gore's Harvard roommate, Tommy Lee Jones, who inspired the half of the character that was a sensitive stud, a macho athlete with the heart of a poet". Erich Segal had met both Jones and Gore at Harvard in 1968, when he was there on sabbatical.


title: Love Story (novel)

text: David Johnston, who became Governor General of Canada from 2010 to 2017, was the basis for the character Davey, an ice hockey team captain. Johnston had been a Harvard Crimson varsity hockey captain and a friend and jogging partner of Segal.


title: Love Story (novel)

text: The novel was an instant commercial success, despite scathing reviews. It was nominated for a National Book Award, but it was withdrawn when the judges threatened to resign. William Styron, the head judge for fiction that year, called it "a banal book which simply doesn't qualify as literature" and suggested that even by being nominated it would have "demeaned" all the other novels under consideration.


title: Rape in Sweden

text: Rape in Sweden has a legal definition described in Chapter 6 in the Swedish Penal Code. Historically, rape has been defined as forced sexual intercourse initiated against a woman or man by one or several people, without consent. In recent years, several revisions to the definition of rape have been made to the law of Sweden, to include not only intercourse but also comparable sexual acts against someone incapable of giving consent, due to being in a vulnerable situation, such as a state of fear or unconsciousness.


title: Rape in Sweden

text: In 2017, there were 4,895 reported rape cases and 190 convictions. In 2018, Sweden passed a new law that criminalizes sex without consent as rape, even when there are no threats, coercion, or violence involved. Sweden no longer requires prosecutors to prove the use or threat of violence or coercion. This led to a rise in convictions of 75% to 333.


title: Rape in Sweden

text: The first statutory law against rape in Sweden dates back to the 13th century. It was considered a serious crime, punishable by death until 1779. The current Swedish Penal Code was adopted in 1962 and enacted on 1 January 1965. A long-standing tradition of gender equality in policy and legislation, as well as an established feminist movement, have led to several legislative changes and amendments, greatly expanding the definition of rape. For example, in 1965 Sweden was one of the first countries in the world to criminalise marital rape. Homosexual acts and gender neutrality were first introduced in 1984, and sex with someone by improperly exploiting them while they are unconscious (e.g. due to intoxication or sleep) was included in the definition of rape in 2005.


title: Rape in Sweden

text: In Sweden, case law also plays an important role in setting precedent on the application of the legislation. For example, a 2008 ruling by the Supreme Court decided that digital penetration of the vagina, on a woman who is intoxicated or sleeping, shall be regarded as a sexual act comparable to sexual intercourse, and is therefore an act of rape.


title: Rape in Sweden

text: Ever since the collation of crime statistics was initiated by the Council of Europe, Sweden has had the highest number of registered rape offences in Europe by a considerable extent. In 1996, Sweden registered almost three times the average number of rape offences registered in 35 European countries. However, this does not necessarily mean rape is three times as likely to occur as in the rest of Europe, since cross-national comparisons of crime levels based on official crime statistics are problematic, due to a number of factors described below.


title: Rape in Sweden

text: There are three types of factors that determine the outcome of crime statistics: statistical factors, legal factors, and substantive factors. According to a study in the year 2000 by Hanns von Hofer, Professor of Criminology at Stockholm University, the combined effect of these "make it safe to contend that the Swedish rape statistics constitute an 'over-reporting' relative to the European average".


title: Rape in Sweden

text: In 2014, there were 6,697 rapes reported to the Swedish police, or 69 cases per 100,000 population, according to the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (BRÅ), which is an 11% increase from the previous year. In 2015, the number of reported rapes declined 12%, to 5918. On the other hand, Swedish Crime Survey in 2015 showed that 1.7% of the total population, or 129,000 people between 16–79 years old have been exposed to some extension of sexual offenses (including rape) previously in their lives, increased from 1% in 2014. In 2016, the number of reported rapes increased again to 6,715. The number of rapes reported to the authorities in Sweden significantly increased by 10% in 2017, according to latest preliminary figures from the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention. The number of reported rape cases was 73 per 100,000 citizens in 2017, up 24% in the past decade. In 2018, official numbers showed that the incidence of sexual offences was on the rise; the Swedish Government declared that young women are facing the greatest risks and that most of the cases go unreported.


title: Rape in Sweden

text: Unlike the majority of countries in Europe, crime data in Sweden are collected when the offence in question is first reported, at which point the classification may be unclear. In Sweden, once an act has been registered as rape, it retains this classification in the published crime statistics, even if later investigations indicate that no crime can be proven or if the offence must be given an alternative judicial classification.


title: Rape in Sweden

text: Sweden also applies a system of expansive offence counts. Other countries may employ more restrictive methods of counting. The Swedish police registers one offence for each person raped, and if one and the same person has been raped on a number of occasions, one offence is counted for each occasion that can be specified. For example, if a woman says she has been raped by her husband every day during a month, the Swedish police may record more than 30 cases of rape. In many other countries only a single offence would be counted in such a situation.


title: Rape in Sweden

text: In Sweden, crime statistics refer to the year when the offence was reported; the actual offence may have been committed long before. Swedish rape statistics can thus contain significant time-lag, which makes interpretations of annual changes difficult.


title: Rape in Sweden

text: The way the crime itself is defined and various related aspects of the judicial process affect the registration of offences in the official statistics. The concept of rape can be defined narrowly or in a more expansive manner. In Sweden, the definition of rape has been successively widened over the years, leading to an ever-larger number of sexual assaults being classified as rape. For example, in 1992 a legislative change came into force which shifted the dividing line between sexual assault and rape. This legislative change resulted in about a 25% increase in the level of registered rape offences.


title: Rape in Sweden

text: Changes in the legal process has also affected the number of reports. Until 1984, rape was only prosecuted in cases where the victim was prepared to press charges, with an additional restriction of a six months time limit. This resulted in numerous cases of rape and sexual assault going unreported.


title: Rape in Sweden

text: The Swedish prosecution system is governed by the principle of legality and the "equality principle", which means that as a rule, the police and the prosecution service are required to register and prosecute all offences of which they become aware. This can be assumed to lead to a more frequent registration of offences than in systems with the inverse "expediency principle", where the classification of offences is negotiable on the basis of plea bargaining, and the prosecutor has the right not to prosecute, even when a prosecution would be technically possible. English speaking common law countries operate an adversarial system.


title: Rape in Sweden

text: Willingness to report crime also affects the statistics. In countries where rape remains associated with a strong taboo and a high level of shame, the propensity to report such offences probably tends to be lower than in countries characterized by a higher level of sexual equality. A police force and judicial system enjoining a high level of confidence and a good reputation with the public will produce a higher propensity to report crime than a police force which is discredited, inspires fear or distrust.


title: Rape in Sweden

text: The findings of the 2000 International Crime Victims Survey (ICVS) indicate that the respondents' satisfaction with the police is above average in Sweden, with almost no experience of corruption. Sweden has also been ranked number one in sexual equality.


title: Rape in Sweden

text: In 1994, of the 314 men arrested for rape, 79% were born in Europe, 21% were born outside of Europe; 50% were foreigners.


title: Rape in Sweden

text: In 2018, Swedish Television investigative journalism show Uppdrag Granskning analysed the total of 843 district court cases from the five preceding years and found that 58% of all convicted of rape and attempted rape had a foreign background. Majority were from Europe at 416. When only analysing rape assault (Swedish: "överfallsvåldtäkt") cases, that is cases where perpetrator and victim were not previously acquainted, 97 out of 129 were born outside Europe, with 40 percent of these having been in Sweden for a year or less. The Mission Investigation programme, broadcast by SVT, said that the total number of offenders over five years was 843. Of those, 197 were from the Middle East and North Africa, and 134 from Southern Africa. "We are very clear in the programme that it is a small percentage of the people coming from abroad who are convicted of rape," chief editor Ulf Johansson told the "BBC News" Swedish Television's investigating journalists found that in cases where the victims didn't know the attackers, the proportion of foreign-born sex offenders was more than 80%.


title: Rape in Sweden

text: In 2021, a study found that of 3039 offenders aged 15-60 convicted of raping over 18 years of age in the 2000-15 period, 59.2% had an immigrant background and 47.7% were born outside Sweden.


title: Rape in Sweden

text: Widely differing legal systems, offence definitions, terminological variations, recording practices and statistical conventions makes any cross-national comparison on rape statistics difficult. Large-scale victimisation surveys have been presented as a more reliable indicator.


title: Rape in Sweden

text: A frequently cited source when comparing Swedish rape statistics internationally is the regularly published report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). In 2012, according to the report by UNODC, Sweden was quoted as having 66.5 cases of reported rapes per 100,000 population, based on official statistics by Brå. This is the highest number of reported rape of any nation in the report. The high number of reported rapes in Sweden can partly be explained by the comparatively broad definition of rape, the method of which the Swedish police record rapes, a high confidence in the criminal justice system, and an effort by the Government of Sweden to decrease the number of unreported rapes.


title: Rape in Sweden

text: The UNODC itself discourages any cross-national comparisons based on their reports, because of the differences that exist between legal definitions, methods of offense counting and crime reporting. In 2013, of the 129 countries listed in the UNODC report, a total of 67 countries had no reported data on rape. Some majority-Muslim countries missing data—for example Egypt—classifies rape as assault. A crime survey funded by the UN and published in The Lancet Global Health concluded that almost a quarter of all men admit to rape in parts of Asia. Some of the countries with the highest percentage of men admitting rape in that study, China and Bangladesh for instance, are also not listed or have relatively low numbers of reported rape in the UNODC report.


title: Rape in Sweden

text: 8 out of 10 of the countries with the highest number of reported rape in the 2011 UNODC report were members of OECD, an organization of high-income economies with a very high Human Development Index. 6 out of 10 countries with the highest number of reported rapes were also in the top of the Global Gender Gap Index rankings.


title: Rape in Sweden

text: In Sweden there is a comparatively broad definition of what constitutes rape. This means that more sexual crimes are registered as rape than in most other countries. For this reason, criminologists tend to recommend crime comparisons between countries based on large surveys of the general public, so-called victim surveys.


title: Rape in Sweden

text: The Swedish Crime Survey (SCS) is a recurrent survey by Brå of the attitudes and experiences of the general population regarding victimization, fear of crime and public confidence in the justice system, with an annual sample size of around 15,000 respondents.


title: Rape in Sweden

text: In its 2018 report, "Nationella trygghetsundersökningen 2018" (tr: "national survey of safety 2018") the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention stated that there had been an increase in the self-reported number of victims of sexual crime among from 4.7% in 2016 to 6.4% in 2017. In the 5 preceding years there were escalating levels compared to the 2005–2012 period where the level was relatively stable. The increase in self-reported victimisation was greater among women than among men. While the number of male victims remained largely constant over the timespan (see graph). The questionnaire polls for incidents which would equate to attempted sexual assault or rape according to Swedish law.


title: Rape in Sweden

text: In 2009, Amnesty International published a report on rape in the Nordic countries, criticizing the low conviction rates in Sweden, citing previously published estimates from Brå of around 30,000 incidents of rape, with less than 13 percent of the 3,535 rape crimes reported resulting in a decision to start legal proceedings and 216 persons convicted in 2007, with Amnesty using the word "impunity" to describe the situation.


title: Rape in Sweden

text: According to a London Metropolitan University study in 2009, funded by the European Commission Daphne Programme—primarily focused on attrition, the process by which rape cases fail to proceed through the justice system—Sweden had the highest number of reported rapes in Europe (almost twice that of England and Wales, based on 2002-2007 UNODC figures), that may or may not be attributed to the fact that in 2005 there has been reform in the sex crime legislation. That change in the legislation applies for rapes reported in 2006 and 2007 but it doesn't apply for the previous rapes reported in 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 before the change and when the reported rapes in Sweden were still the highest in Europe. The reform made the legal definition of rape one of the widest legal definitions in the world, but not the lowest conviction rate. Insufficient evidence was the most frequent reason why cases were discontinued before court (53%).


title: Rape in Sweden

text: The authors of the study questioned the accuracy of the data provided by the countries reporting low instances of rape. They also noted that a widening of the definition of rape in law; procedural rules which require police to record all reports, a confidence in the criminal justice system and a greater willingness among Swedish women to report rape in relationships could account for the relative high number of reported rapes in Sweden.


title: Rape in Sweden

text: The low conviction rate could be explained by the reduced legal distinction between rape and permitted intercourse, leading to greater challenges for the prosecution to prove its case, according to Petter Asp, Professor of Criminal Law at Stockholm University.


title: Rape in Sweden

text: The number of convictions remained relatively unchanged from 2005 to 2014, with approximately 190 convictions on average each year. The total number of convictions for rape and aggravated rape in Sweden 2015 was 176. The total number of convictions for sexual offences, which includes rape but also other crimes such as buying sexual services, was 1160.


title: Rape in Sweden

text: In 2013, "Forskning & Framsteg", a Swedish popular science magazine, published an article reporting that “The evidence suggests that gang rapes in Sweden is increasing - despite the decline in violent crime in general.” "FoF" went on to report that, “The increase, which primarily occurred in the 2000s, may have to do with "rape with multiple perpetrators" from 2004, classified as "serious crime", which means that more obscure cases fall into this category.” "FoF" further reports that “National Council's investigator, Klara Hradilova-Selin, said that "developments could at least partly be interpreted in terms of an actual increase." Although there are a number of other important reasons why we are seeing more reports, such as, Klara Hradilova-Selin goes on to say, “more woman dare to go the police” and an “increased alcohol consumption”. Finally "FoF" goes on to report that in the 1990s “In the gang rape of three or more perpetrators 39 percent are foreign born.” The statistics for gang rapes were not investigated by Swedish authorities after 2006.


title: Rape in Sweden

text: In March 2018, newspaper "Expressen" investigated gang rape court cases from the two preceding years and found that there were 43 men having been convicted. Their average age was 21 and 13 were under the age of 18 when the crime was committed. Of the convicted, 40 out of the 43 were either immigrants (born abroad) or born in Sweden to immigrant parents. Another investigation by newspaper "Aftonbladet" found that of 112 men and boys convicted for gang rape since July 2012, 82 were born outside Europe. The median age of the victims was 15, while 7 out of 10 perpetrators were between 15 and 20.


title: Rape in Sweden

text: According to Brå in 2013, it is likely that as many as 80 per cent of all rapes are not reported, which was confirmed in a 2014 study of the extent of violence against women, funded by the Government of Sweden and the Crime Victim Compensation and Support Authority. This can be compared to a 2007 British Government report, estimating that between 75 and 95 percent of rapes are not reported in the United Kingdom.


title: Earned income tax credit

text: The United States federal earned income tax credit or earned income credit (EITC or EIC) is a refundable tax credit for low- to moderate-income working individuals and couples, particularly those with children. The amount of EITC benefit depends on a recipient's income and number of children. Low income adults with no children are eligible. For a person or couple to claim one or more persons as their qualifying child, requirements such as relationship, age, and shared residency must be met.


title: Earned income tax credit

text: EITC phases in slowly, has a medium-length plateau, and phases out more slowly than it was phased in. Since the credit phases out at 21% (more than one qualifying child) or 16% (one qualifying child), it is always preferable to have one more dollar of actual salary or wages considering the EITC alone. (Investment income, however, is handled far less gracefully, as one more dollar of income can result in the sudden 100% loss of the entire credit.) If the EITC is combined with multiple other means-tested programs such as Medicaid or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, it is possible that the marginal tax rate approaches or exceeds 100% in rare circumstances depending on the state of residence; conversely, under certain circumstances, net income can rise faster than the increase in wages because the EITC phases in.


title: Earned income tax credit

text: The earned income tax credit has been part of political debates in the United States over whether raising the minimum wage or increasing EITC is a better idea. In a random survey of 568 members of the American Economic Association in 2011, roughly 60% of economists agreed (31.7%) or agreed with provisos (30.8%) that the earned income tax credit program should be expanded.


title: Earned income tax credit

text: In 1969, Richard Nixon proposed the Family Assistance Plan, which included a guaranteed minimum income in the form of a negative income tax. The House of Representatives passed this plan, but the Senate did not. During his 1972 Presidential campaign, George McGovern proposed a demogrant of $1,000 for every American. Critics during this time complained about implying people don't have to work for a living, and saw the program as having too little stigma; during this time, Hawaii had an established residency requirement for public aid, which one Hawaii State Senator suggested was necessary to discourage "parasites in paradise".


title: Earned income tax credit

text: Proposed by Russell Long and enacted in 1975, the EITC provides benefits to working recipients with earned income, but not to non-working recipients. The initially modest EITC has been expanded by tax legislation on a number of occasions, including the widely publicized Tax Reform Act of 1986, and was further expanded in 1990, 1993, 2001, and 2009, regardless of whether the act in general raised taxes (1990, 1993), lowered taxes (2001), or eliminated other deductions and credits (1986). In 1993, President Clinton tripled the EITC. Today, the EITC is one of the largest anti-poverty tools in the United States. Also, the EITC is mainly used to "promote and support work." Most income measures, including the poverty rate, do not account for the credit.


title: Earned income tax credit

text: A qualifying child can be a person's daughter, son, stepchild, or any further descendant (such as grandchild, great grandchild, etc.) or a person's brother, sister, half sister, half brother, stepbrother, stepsister, or any further descendant (such as niece, nephew, great-nephew, great-great-niece, etc.). A qualifying child can also be in the process of being adopted provided he or she has been lawfully placed. Foster children also count provided either the child has been officially placed or is a member of one's extended family. A younger single parent cannot claim EITC if he or she is also claimable as a qualifying child of their parent or another older relative, which can happen in some extended family situations. This restriction does not apply to a married couple who is claiming EITC with a child, even if one or both spouses are under the age of 19.


title: Earned income tax credit

text: A person claiming EITC must be older than his or her qualifying child unless the “child” is classified as "permanently and totally disabled" for the tax year (physician states one year or more). A qualifying "child" can be up to and including age 18. A qualifying "child" who is a full-time student (one long semester or equivalent) can be up to and including age 23. And a person classified as "permanently and totally disabled" (one year or more) can be any age and count as one's qualifying "child" provided the other requirements are met. Parents claim their own child(ren) if eligible unless they are waiving this year's credit to an extended family member who has higher adjusted gross income. There is no support test for EITC. There is a six-month plus one day shared residency test.


title: Earned income tax credit

text: In the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the EITC was temporarily expanded for two specific groups: married couples and families with three or more children; this expansion was extended through December 2012 by H.R. 4853, the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010. Effective for the 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 filing seasons, the EITC supported these taxpayers by:


title: Earned income tax credit

text: As of 2022, 30 states and DC have enacted state EITCs: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. Some of these state EICs are refundable, and some are not. In addition, a few small local EITCs have been enacted in San Francisco, New York City, and Montgomery County, Maryland.


title: Earned income tax credit

text: Earned income is defined by the United States Internal Revenue Code as income received through personal effort, with the following as the main sources:


title: Earned income tax credit

text: If an adult's income is very low they may be eligible for EITC even if they have no children, for the 2021 that was less than $21,430 ($27,380 if married filing jointly).


title: Earned income tax credit

text: A person or couple claiming EITC with one or more qualifying children need to fill out and attach Schedule EITC to their 1040 or 1040A. This form asks for the child(ren)'s name, social security number, year of birth, whether an older "child" age 19 to 23 was classified as a student for the year (full-time status for at least one long semester or equivalent time period), whether an older "child" is classified as disabled during the year (doctor states one year or more), the child's relationship to claimant, and the number of months the child lived with the claimant in the United States.


title: Earned income tax credit

text: To claim a person as qualifying child, the following requirements of relationship, age, and shared residence must be met.


title: Earned income tax credit

text: In the case of a married couple filing jointly, if one spouse is related to the child by any of the below relationships, both spouses are considered related to the child.


title: Earned income tax credit

text: The claimant must be related to their qualifying child through blood, marriage, or law. The qualifying child can be:


title: Earned income tax credit

text: A child might classify as the qualifying child of more than one adult family member, at least initially. For example, in an extended family situation, both a parent and an uncle may meet the initial standards of relationship, age, and residency to claim a particular child. In such a case, there is a further rule: If a single parent or both parents, whether married or not, can claim the child (residency and age) but choose to waive the child to a non-parent, such as a grandparent or uncle or aunt, this non-parent can claim the child only if they have a higher adjusted gross income (AGI) than any parent who has lived with the child for at least six months.


title: Earned income tax credit

text: This still remains the parent's choice. Provided the parent has lived with the child for at least six months and one day, the parent can always choose to claim his or her child for purposes of the earned income credit. In a tiebreaker situation between two unmarried parents, the tiebreak goes to the parent who lived with the child for the longest. In a tiebreaker between two non-parents, the tiebreak goes to the person with the higher AGI. And in a tiebreaker between a parent and non-parent, the parent wins by definition. These tiebreaker situations only occur if more than one family member actually file tax returns in which they claim the same child. On the other hand, if the family can agree, per the above and following rules, they can engage in a limited amount of tax planning as to which family member claims the child.


title: Earned income tax credit

text: A single parent younger than age 19 living in an extended family situation is potentially claimable as the qualifying "child" of an older relative. And a single parent under age 24 who is also a full-time college student (one long semester or equivalent) living in an extended family situation is also potentially claimable. If so, the younger single parent cannot claim EIC. This rule does not apply to a married couple who are claiming EIC with a child, even if one or both spouses are under the age of 19. (This rule also does not apply if the older relative is not required to file a tax return, and subsequently either does not file or only files to receive a full refund of taxes withheld.)


title: Earned income tax credit

text: Generally, one sibling claiming another as their qualifying child must be older. In the case of a married couple filing a joint return, only one of the spouses must be older. An exception to the must-be-older-rule is the case of a qualifying child who is classified as "permanently and totally disabled" (physician states one year or more). Such a "child" can be any age and the age requirement is considered to be automatically met (of course the relationship and shared residency requirements must still be met).


title: Earned income tax credit

text: The standard rule is that the qualifying "child" must be under the age of 19 at the end of the tax year. That is, the younger person can be 18 years and 364 days old on December 31 and the age requirement is met.


title: Earned income tax credit

text: This age limit is extended for a qualifying "child" who is also a full-time student during some part of five calendar months. This young adult merely needs to be under age 24 at the end of the tax year for the age requirement to be met (relationship and residency requirements must still be met). That is, the young adult who is full-time for at least part of five different months can be 23 years and 364 days on December 31 and meet the age requirement to be someone else's qualifying "child." The standard Fall semester of a university, in which classes start in late August and continue through September, October, November, and early December, counts as part of five calendar months. And a similar conclusion applies to the standard Spring semester. However, the five months need not be consecutive and can be obtained with any combination of shorter periods. A full-time student is a student who is enrolled for the number of hours or courses the school considers to be full-time attendance. High school students who work in co-op jobs or who are in a vocational high school program are classified as full-time students. Schools include technical, trade, and mechanical schools.


title: Earned income tax credit

text: A person who is classified as "permanently and totally disabled" (physician states one year or more) can be any age and the age requirement is automatically met. More fully, the definition of "permanently and totally disabled" is that a person has a mental or physical disability, cannot engage in substantial gainful activity, and a physician has determined that the condition has lasted or is expected to last one year or more (or that it can lead to death).


title: Earned income tax credit

text: The claimant must live with their qualifying child(ren) within the fifty states and/or District of Columbia of the United States for more than half the tax year (per instructions, six months and one day is listed as 7 months on Schedule EIC). U.S. military personnel stationed outside the United States on extended active duty are considered to live in the U.S. for purposes of the EIC. Extended active duty means the person is called to duty for an indefinite period or for a period of more than 90 days (which is still considered to be extended active even if the period ends up being less than 90 days).