Solar forcing of Holocene droughts in
a stalagmite record from West Virginia in east - central North America (Geophysical Research Letters, Volume 35, Issue 17, September 2008)-- Gregory S. Springer et al..
A new study using a high - resolution
stalagmite record from Australia with cave sites in southern China reveal a close coupling of monsoon rainfall on both continents, with numerous synchronous pluvial and drought periods, suggesting that the tropical rain belt expanded and contracted numerous times at multidecadal to centennial scales.
DOI: 10.1038 / srep10307 A composite annual - resolution
stalagmite record of North Atlantic climate over the last three millennia
15:00 - 15:15 Fluctuations in the Indonesian - Australian Monsoon: New insights from the Flores
stalagmite record Nick Scroxton, Linda Ayliffe, Mike Gagan, John Hellstrom, Wahyoe Hantoro, Hamdi Rifai, Bambang Suwargardi
While
the stalagmite record reflected responses to abrupt changes known as Heinrich events, another major type of event — known as Dansgaard - Oeschger excursions — left no evidence in the Borneo stalagmites.
The article, «Extreme rainfall activity in the Australian tropics reflects changes in the El Niño / Southern Oscillation over the last two millennia,» presents a precisely dated
stalagmite record of cave flooding events that are tied to tropical cyclones, which include storms such as hurricanes and typhoons.
When the researchers analyzed the Mawmluh
stalagmite record, the results were consistent with the historical record.
The value of this information is illustrated by the results of a study published May 19 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters by Oster's group, working with colleagues from the Berkeley Geochronology Center, the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History and the University of Cambridge titled «Northeast Indian
stalagmite records Pacific decadal climate change: Implications for moisture transport and drought in India.»
Lachniet noted that
stalagmites record the chemical variations that are linked to climate.
Climate variability in central China over the last 1270 years revealed by high - resolution
stalagmite records Paulsen, D.E., Li, H. - C.
The information gleaned from
the stalagmite records can be compared with the island's 106 - year - old human - kept records to see how closely they match.
Not exact matches
Stalagmites and stalactites — the stony projections that grow from the cave floor and ceiling, respectively — carry a
record of precipitation because they grow as a result of dripping water.
Denniston noted that the variations over time in the numbers of flood events
recorded by his
stalagmites matched reconstructed numbers of hurricanes in the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean.
Angelique Gonzales» 14, who worked with Denniston on the research and is third author on the paper, examined nearly 11 meters of
stalagmites, measuring them in half millimeter increments and
recording the location and thickness of mud layers.
Stalagmites, which crystallize from water dropping onto the floors of caves, millimeter by millimeter, over thousands of years, leave behind a
record of climate change encased in stone.
Thus, the researchers interpreted the flood layers in their
stalagmites largely as
recording tropical cyclone activity.
Newly published research by Rhawn Denniston, professor of geology at Cornell College, and his research team, applied a novel technique to
stalagmites from the Australian tropics to create a 2,200 - year - long
record of flood events that might also help predict future climate change.
In this case, the researchers combined
records of ancient lake levels, location and extent of glaciation, variations in the composition of
stalagmites in caves, and evidence for changes in vegetation and subsurface soil deposits associated with water table depth.
By overlapping the five
stalagmites they obtained a proxy
record of the climate at the cave during a 3000 - year period from about 1000 BC to 2000 AD.
That information can be compared to
stalagmite and ice core climate
records obtained elsewhere in the world.
Both types of abrupt climate change events are prominently featured in a previously - published
stalagmite climate
record from China — which is only slightly north of Borneo.
«We painstakingly measured the thickness of each annual growth ring in five
stalagmites taken from the cave, including one that provides a continuous annual
record spanning more than 1800 years,» says Baker.
Kennett, working with Norbert Marwan, climatologist and statistician, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany, looked at climate
records for central Mexico gleaned from a
stalagmite collected from Juxtlahuaca Cave in the state of Guerrero.
In both cases the climate
records are based on oxygen isotope measurements on datable layers of ice or
stalagmite cave deposition.
Most d18O
records — in caves
stalagmites, lake sediment or ice cores are usually interpreted this way since most of their signal is from the rain water d18O.
Most of proxy temperature
records are from tree - ring measurements, but additional evidence comes from glacier ice, speleothems [
stalagmites, stalactites and related mineral formations], corals and lake sediments.
The team measured trace elements and stable isotopes in
stalagmites from the Indonesian island of Flores and used them to reconstruct ancient rainfall, comparing them to
records from East Asia and the central - eastern equatorial Pacific.
And while the
record from the
stalagmite Frappier selected stretched back 23 years, it
records storms by week and month, not just by season.
Scientists have pieced together the climate history from 3000 year old
stalagmites and discovered a
record of climate changes that may have influenced major historical events, including the fall of the Roman Empire and the Viking Age of expansion....
They looked at data from wind - blown dust in sediment cores from the Red Sea, and matched these with
records from Chinese
stalagmites to confirm a picture of pronounced climate change at the end of each ice age, and calculated that sea levels rose at the rate of 5.5 metres per century.
Paleoclimate
records from ice cores, marine sediment cores, and speleothems (
stalagmites and stalactites) have demonstrated that abrupt Northern Hemisphere cooling and Southern Hemisphere warming occurred in response to Heinrich events.
«The surface temperature changes for the last 4000 years in northern inland Iberia (an area particularly sensitive to climate change) are determined by a high resolution study of carbon stable isotope
records of
stalagmites from three caves (Kaite, Cueva del Cobre, and Cueva Mayor) separated several 10 s km away in N Spain.
«Holocene ITCZ and Indian monsoon dynamics
recorded in
stalagmites from Oman and Yemen (Socotra)» Fleitmann et al. 2006
The
stalagmites, composed of calcium carbonate leached from dripping water, preserve a
record of monsoon rainfall in the region by their composition.