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The Paleocene؊Eocene Nummulitic Limestone Formation of the Alpine periphery occupies the lowermost part of a stratigraphic trinity above a major basal unconformity. It is thought to have accumulated as a foraminiferal carbonate ramp at the distal featheredge of the underfilled north Alpine and southwest Alpine foreland basin. We present the results of a numerical model that links carbonate sedimentation at the distal featheredge of a peripheral foreland basin to the flexural subsidence of an elastic plate subjected to a distributed load with a superimposed eustatic sea-level history. Carbonate accumulation is treated as depth dependent. Model parameters are constrained by geological and geophysical observations of the Alpine orogen and its peripheral foreland basin and from literature on the ecology of benthic foraminifers. The generic Alpine model shows that the carbonate ramp accumulates as a number of sedimentary cycles before rapid drowning, giving rise to a retrogradational stratigraphic package terminated by a surface of accelerated transgression and backstepping. Running the model with sets of parameter values appropriate to the Paleocene to middle Eocene Nummulitic Limestone in central-eastern Switzerland, and the late Eocene Nummulitic Limestone

HAWAII MR1 side-scan sonar and six-channel seismic reflection data reveal a history of carbonate platform growth, drowning, and back stepping in the Huon Gulf, Papua New Guinea. This is one of the few modern sites where active carbonate platform development and foredeep subsidence are linked. 230 Th methods date aragonitic shallow-water corals, recovered from a modern depth of 2000 m, at 348 ؎ 10 ka. This documents rapid subsidence of the Huon Gulf in response to the encroaching Finisterre Mountains at an average rate of 5.7 mm/yr for the past 348 k.y., the highest subsidence rate reported from any foredeep setting. Carbonate deposition has moved toward the foreland at an average rate of 110 mm/yr over the same period. Comparisons of the measured age with sea-level history (derived from the oxygen isotope record) suggest that the reefs may have formed during sea-level lowstands and drowned during rapid rates of sea-level rise.

Abstract. The science guiding the EUREC4A campaign and its measurements is presented. EUREC4A comprised roughly 5 weeks of measurements in the downstream winter trades of the North Atlantic – eastward and southeastward of Barbados. Through its ability to characterize processes operating across a wide range of scales, EUREC4A marked a turning point in our ability to observationally study factors influencing clouds in the trades, how they will respond to warming, and their link to other components of the earth system, such as upper-ocean processes or the life cycle of particulate matter. This characterization was made possible by thousands (2500) of sondes distributed to measure circulations on meso- (200 km) and larger (500 km) scales, roughly 400 h of flight time by four heavily instrumented research aircraft; four global-class research vessels; an advanced ground-based cloud observatory; scores of autonomous observing platforms operating in the upper ocean (nearly 10 000 profiles), lower atmosphere (continuous profiling), and along the air–sea interface; a network of water stable isotopologue measurements; targeted tasking of satellite remote sensing; and modeling with a new generation of weather and climate models. In addition to providing an outline of the novel measurements and their composition into a unified and coordinated campaign, the six distinct scientific facets that EUREC4A explored – from North Brazil Current rings to turbulence-induced clustering of cloud droplets and its influence on warm-rain formation – are presented along with an overview of EUREC4A's outreach activities, environmental impact, and guidelines for scientific practice. Track data for all platforms are standardized and accessible at https://doi.org/10.25326/165 (Stevens, 2021), and a film documenting the campaign is provided as a video supplement.