Last interglacial sea-level history from speleothems: a global standardized database

Speleothems (secondary cave carbonate precipitates) are archives of valuable information for reconstructing past sea levels as they are generally protected from weathering and erosion by their location and can be dated with U-series methods. Two main categories of speleothems are recognized as sea-l...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEarth system science data Vol. 13; no. 5; pp. 2077 - 2094
Main Authors Dumitru, Oana A, Polyak, Victor J, Asmerom, Yemane, Onac, Bogdan P
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Katlenburg-Lindau Copernicus GmbH 18.05.2021
Copernicus Publications
Subjects
Access
Archives & records
Brackish water
Carbonates
Caves
Coastal flooding
Eustatic changes
Hiatuses
Indicators
Interglacial periods
Isotopes
Level indicators
Morphology
Precipitates
Precipitation
Scientific research
Sea level
Sea level changes
Shorelines
Tectonics
Uplift
Water levels
Weathering
Majorca
Cuba
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Summary:Speleothems (secondary cave carbonate precipitates) are archives of valuable information for reconstructing past sea levels as they are generally protected from weathering and erosion by their location and can be dated with U-series methods. Two main categories of speleothems are recognized as sea-level indicators: phreatic overgrowth on speleothems (POSs) and submerged vadose speleothems (SVSs). POSs have the great advantage that they precipitate on preexisting supports (vadose speleothems or cave walls) at a brackish water level equivalent to sea level when air-filled chambers of coastal caves are flooded by rising sea. SVSs are also useful, but sea level is inferred indirectly as periods of growth provide constraints on maximum sea-level positions, whereas growth hiatuses, sometimes difficult to observe, may indicate times when cave passages are submerged by sea highstands; hence they record minimum sea-level elevations.
ISSN:1866-3516
1866-3508
1866-3516
DOI:10.5194/essd-13-2077-2021