Big thermal events and climatic cyclicity in the Basque Coast Geopark´s geosites: a great laboratory to understand the geological point of view of the climate change

Asier Hilario (*)
(*) Basque Coast Geopark. Ifar Kalea 4 20820 Deba. Gipuzkoa. Spain. E-mail: flysch@gipuzkoa.net

According to the International Community climate change is one of the biggest challenges that human kind must face. In this way, education about the causes and consequences of this process is of crucial importance to get a higher sensitivity and a more responsible implication of the entire society. The geological record is a fantastic tool that allows valuating the context of the current climate warming by understanding the evolution of the earth climatic system, as well as by comparing the current warming event with other thermal episodes of the Earth history. Basque Coast Geopark offers a great possibility to research and teach about climate change because it contains one of the most world-famous outcrops of Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximun (PETM) and a very clear stratigraphic cyclicity related to the Milankovitch astronomic and climatic cycles. These two geosites have been investigated for longer than 20 years and now they are one of the biggest geo-attractions of the Basque Coast Geopark´s geotouristic and educational program because their interpretation provides a new point of view of the present climate change.

Climatic change, education, Milankovitch cycles, PETM