Speleothem science: from process to past environments

Speleothems (mineral deposits that formed in caves) are currently giving us some of the most exciting insights into environments and climates during the Pleistocene ice ages and the subsequent Holocene rise of civilizations. The bookapplies system science to Quaternary environments in a new and rigorous way and gives holistic explanations the relations between the properties of speleothems and the climatic and cave setting in which they are found. It is designed as the ideal companion to someone embarking on speleothem research and, since the underlying science is very broad, it will also be invaluable to a wide variety of others. Students and professional scientists interested in carbonate rocks, karst hydrogeology, climatology, aqueous geochemistry, carbonate geochemistry and the calibration of climatic proxies will find up-to-date reviews of these topics here. The book will also be valuable to Quaternary scientistswho, up to now, have lacked a thorough overview of these important archives.Additional resources for this book can be found at: www.wiley.com/go/fairchild/speleothem. INDICE: Preface, xiAcknowledgements, xiiiI Scientifi c and geological context, 11 Introduction to speleothems and systems, 31.1 What is all the fuss about?, 31.2 How is this book organized?, 111.3 Concepts and approaches of systemscience, 131.4 The speleothem factory within the karst system, 182 Carbonate and karst cave geology, 282.1 Carbonates in the Earth system over geological time, 282.2 Lithologies of carbonate host rocks, 342.3 Carbonate diagenesis andeogenetic karst, 472.4 Speleogenesis in mesogenetic and telogenetic karst (with contributions from John Gunn and David J Lowe), 552.5 Cave infilling, 642.6Conclusion, 713 Surface environments: climate, soil and vegetation, 733.1 Themodern climate system, 733.2 Water isotopes in the atmosphere, 843.3 Soils ofkarst regions, 943.4 Vegetation of karst regions, 1023.5 Synthesis: inputs tothe incubator, 104II Transfer processes in karst, 1054 The speleothem incubator, 1074.1 Introduction to speleophysiology, 1074.2 Physical parameters and fluid behaviour, 1094.3 Water movement, 1144.4 Air circulation, 1224.5 Heat flux (authored by David Domínguez-Villar), 1374.6 Synthesis: cave climatologies, 1455 Inorganic water chemistry, 1485.1 Sampling protocols for water chemistry, 1485.2 The carbonate system, 1525.3 Weathering, trace elements and isotopes, 1565.4 Carbon isotopes, 1735.5 Evolution of cave water chemistry: modelling sources and environmental signals, 1806 Biogeochemistry of karstic environments, 1876.1 Introduction, 1876.2 Organic macromolecules, 1886.3 Pollen and spores, 1986.4 Cave faunal remains, 1996.5 Synthesis and research gaps, 200IIISpeleothem properties, 2057 The architecture of speleothems, 2077.1 Introduction, 2077.2 Theoretical models of stalagmite growth and of stalagmite and stalactite shapes, 2077.3 Geometrical classifi cation of speleothems, 2137.4 Mineralogy and petrology, 2237.5 Synthesis, 2418 Geochemistry of speleothems, 2458.1 Analysis and the sources of uncertainty, 2458.2 The growth interface, 2498.3Trace element partitioning, 2558.4 Oxygen and carbon isotope fractionation, 2638.5 Evolution of dripwater and speleothem chemistry along water flowlines, 2778.6 Process models of variability over time, 2819 Dating of speleothems, 2909.1 Introduction, 2909.2 Dating techniques, 2919.3 Age–distance models, 3009.4 Conclusions, 301IV Palaeoenvironments, 30310 The instrumental era: calibration and validation of proxy-environment relationships, 30510.1 Available instrumental and derived series, 30610.2 Methodologies, 31110.3 Case studies ofcalibrated speleothem proxies, 31610.4 Questions raised and future directions, 32311 The Holocene epoch: testing the climate and environmental proxies, 32411.1 A brief overview of the Holocene, 32511.2 The past millennium, 32711.3 Holocene environmental changes: speleothem responses, 33411.4 Questions raised and future directions, 35112 The Pleistocene and beyond, 35312.1 Pleistocene proxy records (ice-age climate fl uctuations defined and drawn), 35312.2 Insights into pre-Quaternary palaeoenvironments, 36112.3 Questions raised and lookingto the future, 365APPENDIX 1 Archiving speleothems and speleothem data, 368References, 371Index, 421

• ISBN: 978-1-4443-6109-4
• Editorial: Wiley-Blackwell
• Encuadernacion: Rústica
• Páginas: 448
• Fecha Publicación: 28/03/2012
• Nº Volúmenes: 1
• Idioma: Inglés