Speleothems & Climate

摘要

It is not without a sense of awe and wonder that one views the often complex maze of structures: flowstone, stalactites, and stalagmites (to name a few) that adorn the inside of underground caverns. Not only are these structures beautiful ornaments that decorate the dark interior of cave systems, but they are, or have been, actively growing profusions of secondary calcite, responding to the supply and composition of drip water feeding in from the world above. Consequently, speleothems may act as long term records of climatic changes affecting the terrestrial surface, an important attribute consider-ing the bulk of our knowledge regarding past climate change stems from marine sedimentary or ice core records.