Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A mineral deposit, such as a stalagmite or stalactite, formed in a cave from the dripping of mineral-rich water.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun geology Any
mineral deposited in acave by the action of water.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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A speleothem that has been intermittently submerged in a cave on the island of Mallorca was dated to show that, historically, sea level was more than a meter above its present height.
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Using speleothem encrustations from coastal caves on the island of Mallorca, we determined that western Mediterranean relative sea level was ~1 meter above modern sea level ~81,000 years ago during marine isotope stage (MIS) 5a.
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Because the speleothem record and prior faunal response imply that local conditions should have been favorable for megafauna until at least 30 ka, climate change is unlikely to have been the principal cause of the extinctions.
Archive 2007-01-01 2007
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We present an analysis of faunal data from the Naracoorte Caves in southeastern Australia, which are unique not only because of the species richness and time-depth of the assemblages that they contain, but also because this faunal record is directly comparable with a 500 k.y. speleothem-based record of local effective moisture.
Archive 2007-01-01 2007
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None of the trends shown in the speleothem directly relate to temperature
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If the Team wish to cavil that this information does not bear on annual temperatures, they must explain why, for example, the same type of data e.g. percent G bulloides in the Arabian Sea, speleothem dO18 is permitted as a temperature proxy in Moberg et al 2005.
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Next here is a graphic of the Oman speleothem S3, referred to in the Yang et al article.
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However, the LGM transition to higher dO18 values is dated about 2000 years earlier for Dongge Cave than for Oman speleothem S3.
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Obviously the speleothem data from Oman and Dongge shows that the Holocene Optimum was very marked in these areas and not just the NH extratropics.
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The next graphic compares the Dongge DA speleothem shown above to the Dongge D4 speleothem, which goes back to the LGM and to another Arabian Sea G bulloides series 723A which, unlike RC2730, goes back to the Holocene Optimum.
hernesheir commented on the word speleothem
(n): A secondary mineral deposit that is formed in a cave by the action of water. syn: cave formation, formation, secondary cave formation. Common examples of speleothems include stalagmite, stalactite, flowstone, and rimstone.
January 15, 2009
reesetee commented on the word speleothem
H: I think that should be stalactite, not stalagtite, no?
January 15, 2009
hernesheir commented on the word speleothem
Thanks for the correction, reesetee.
January 15, 2009
reesetee commented on the word speleothem
You bet.
January 15, 2009