http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/services/Feed ${session.getAttribute("locale")} 5 http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:11218 Speleothems are well-proven archives of terrestrial climate variation, recording mean temperature, rainfall, and surface vegetation data at subannual to millennial resolution. They also form within the generally stable environment of caves, and thus may remain remarkably well preserved for many millions of years and, most important, can be dated radiometrically to provide robust chronologies that do not rely on orbital tuning, ice-flow modeling, or estimates of sediment deposition rates. The recent adaptation of the U-Pb dating technique to speleothems has greatly extended their potential as paleoclimate recorders back into the more distant geological past, well beyond the ~500 k.y. limit previously imposed by U-series techniques, but the opportunities presented by these new methods have yet to be fully explored. As an extreme example, here we report on samples recovered from Permian cave fills, the oldest radiometrically dated speleothems so far documented. Using state of the art analytical techniques it is possible to determine not only their age and state of preservation, but also to extract apparently nearly pristine climate proxy data. Armed with these methods, it now seems reasonable to apply the lessons learned from more recent speleothems to ancient materials, wherever they can be found, and of whatever age, to generate snapshots of paleoclimate that can be used to greatly refine the records preserved within the sediments and fossils of the time. 2012-08-10T02:06:24.643Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:1234 Building upon the work of Richards et al. [1998. U–Pb dating of a speleothem of Quaternary age. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 62, 3683–3688], we have developed a method for precise dating of speleothems beyond the range of the U–Th technique using the U–Pb decay scheme. By coupling low-blank sample preparation procedures and multi collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (MC-ICPMS) analytical methodologies developed for low-level Pb-isotope analysis, we find that, under ideal circumstances (radiogenic speleothems with very low common Pb), U–Pb dating of speleothems is not only possible, but also produces excellent age resolution - often comparable to or better than U–Th studies. Corrections for initial isotopic disequilibrium are necessary and exert a strong control on the achievable age uncertainty. The technique will be of immediate benefit in extending speleothem-based climate proxy records beyond ∼500 ka and will also find other uses, such as the dating of associated sub-fossil remains, and providing constraints on rates of landscape evolution and neo-tectonic processes. Here we present initial results for speleothems from the Nullarbor Plain, Western Australia, and the Alpi Apuane, Italy. The Nullarbor samples provide important new constraints on the development of aridity in Australia during the late Tertiary/early Quaternary, while the Apuane samples offer insights into the landscape history and uplift of that region. 2010-04-27T06:39:11.009Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:1222 A severe drought in parts of low-latitude northeastern Africa and southwestern Asia ∼4200 yr ago caused major disruption to ancient civilizations. Stable isotope, trace element, and organic fluorescence data from a calcite flowstone collected from the well-watered Alpi Apuane karst of central-western Italy indicate that the climatic event responsible for this drought was also recorded in mid-latitude Europe. Although the timing of this event coincides with an episode of increased ice-rafted debris to the subpolar North Atlantic, the regional ocean-atmosphere response seems atypical of similar Holocene ice-rafting events. Furthermore, comparison of the flowstone data with other regional proxies suggests that the most extreme part of the dry spell occurred toward the end of a longer-term climate anomaly. 2010-04-27T06:39:03.255Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:3321 We present a continuous ~14-yr-long (1985 to 1999) high-resolution record of trace element (Mg, Sr, Ba, U) and stable isotope (δ¹³C, δ¹⁸O) variations in a modern freshwater tufa from northwestern Queensland, Australia. By utilizing the temperature dependence of the δ¹⁸O signal, an accurate chronology was developed for the sampled profile, which allowed a comparison of the chemical records with hydrological and meteorological observations. As a consequence, it was possible to constrain the relevant geochemical processes relating climate variables, such as temperature and precipitation, to their chemical proxies in the tufa record. Temperatures calculated from the Mg concentrations of the tufa samples provide close approximations of average annual water temperature variations. Furthermore, we demonstrate that temporal changes in (Mg/Ca)water can be estimated using an empirically derived equation relating (Mg/Ca)water to the (Sr/Ba) ratio measured in the tufa samples. By means of this relationship, it is theoretically possible to determine the (Mg/Ca) ratio of paleowaters, and hence to derive reliable estimates of former water temperatures from the Mg concentrations of fossil tufas from the study area. Sympathetic variations in Sr, Ba, and δ¹³C along the sampled profile record changes in water chemistry, which are most probably caused by variable amounts of calcite precipitation within the vadose zone of the karst aquifer. This process is thought to be markedly subdued whenever the amount of wet-season precipitation exceeds a given threshold. Accordingly, distinct minima in Sr, Ba, and δ¹³C are interpreted to reflect years with above-average rainfall. The pronounced seasonal and annual variability of the U concentration along the profile is thought to primarily record changes in the U flux from the soil to the water table. We suggest that during intensive rain events U is transported to the phreatic zone by complexing organic colloids, giving rise to conspicuous U maxima in the tufa after above-average wet seasons. This study demonstrates the potential of freshwater tufas to provide valuable information on seasonal temperature and rainfall variations. If tufa deposits turn out to be reasonably resistant to secondary processes, combined investigation of speleothems and tufas from the same area could become a promising approach in future research. While speleothems offer continuous records of long-term paleoenvironmental changes, tufas could provide high-resolution time windows into selected periods of the past. 2010-04-27T05:00:37.347Z ]]>