QUATERNARY RESEARCH
Speleothems and Paleoclimate
Speleothems are geological formations that grow in caves, most commonly calcareous due to carbonate dissolution reactions, composed of calcium carbonate minerals (calcite). Their growth rate depends on the composition of the drip and rainwater, as well as climate conditions, which makes them useful paleoclimatic proxies.
The precipitated layers can be precisely dated using uranium-thorium (U-Th) and uranium-lead (U-Pb) isotopic methods and using radioactive carbon isotope. The thickness of the precipitated layers, their isotopic and elemental composition can be used for determination of previous climate changes in different resolutions. The advantage of using speleothems in paleoclimatic research compared to others, is that they are widespread (in almost all climatic zones), well preserved (protected in stable cave environments through long periods), they are multiple climatic-sensitive indirect indicators and have relatively high resolutions (annual or even seasonal ). Speleothems are one of the paleoclimate archives and they are complementary to lake and marine sediment cores, which are both studied in the HGI-CGS. Petra Bajo's scientific article published in prestigious journal - Science, confirms that Survey's researchers play a major role in the moving of the boundaries of speleothem research in the world:
Bajo et al. Science 2020; 367: 1235-1239, Persistent influence of obliquity on ice age terminations since the Middle Pleistocene transtion.
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/367/6483/1235.abstract
From Craotian media:
https://otvoreno.hr/magazin/rad-hrvatske-znanstvenice-objavljen-u-prestiznom-casopisu-science/268666
Laminated speleothem from the cave Nova Grgosova, Samobor
