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| Titel |
Progress and challenges of speleothem research in alpine caves |
| VerfasserIn |
Christoph Spötl, Ronny Boch, Marc Luetscher, Yuri Dublyansky |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2011
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 13 (2011) |
| Datensatznummer |
250058061
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| Zusammenfassung |
| Caves located at high elevation (and high latitudes) have traditionally been viewed a largely
devoid of speleothems due to poorly developed or even lacking soil in the catchment area.
Rare fossil speleothems found in these cavities were often attributed to short pulses of
deposition during former warm episodes.
Our research on caves in the Alps during the last decade was forced us to critically
reconsider this model. Based on a large database we can conclude that a significant number of
alpine caves shows evidence of abundant past, and in some cases also modern, deposition.
Even more interesting is the observation that growth intervals are not confined to peak
interglacials. In several caves we observed a rather unexpected bias toward deposition during
cold periods including stadials. These findings open the door to extend proxy records well
into the long glacials.
Low temperatures of calcite precipitation – locally barely above the freezing point – not
only give rise to slow growth rates, but also favour crystal growth close to thermodynamic
and isotopic equilibrium.
Despite these distinct advantage cold mountain caves provide a number of challenges part
of which reflect the complex catchment topography in high-relief terrains. Unravelling drip
site-specific effects on proxy composition is a key issue in the attempt to establish replicated
records from these sites. |
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