Holocene Paleoclimate in Southwestern United States of America from Annual Banding in Stalagmites

该奖项旨在表彰那些将利用同位素（即氧-18和碳-13）和矿物学（即锶和镁的微探针研究）分析卡尔斯巴德洞穴和新墨西哥州东南部瓜达卢佩山脉其他洞穴中形成的石笋，获得美国西南部全新世高分辨率气候记录的研究。石笋具有获得高分辨率古气候记录的潜力，因为最近在使用热电离质谱铀系列方法测定洞穴沉积物（即包括石笋的洞穴沉积物）年代方面取得了进展。例如，在许多情况下，洞穴主题的条带是足够均匀和独特的，允许频率分析来检查厄尔尼诺/南方涛动（ENSO）的尺度变化。在美国西南地区，有令人信服的证据表明，降水的变化与厄尔尼诺强度的变化有关。这个拟议的研究中心对陆地站点古气候数据新档案的发展产生了更广泛的影响。成功证明洞穴主题记录气候事件的真实性将极大地提高我们对气候的理解。

This award is for research that will acquire high-resolution Holocene climate records for the southwestern USA using isotopic (i.e., oxygen-18 and carbon-13) and mineralogical (i.e., microprobe studies of strontium and magnesium) analyses of stalagmites formed in caves in Carlsbad Cavern and other caves of the Guadalupe Mountains in southeastern New Mexico. Stalagmites hold the potential for possessing a windfall of high-resolution records of paleoclimate because of recent advances in dating speleothems (i.e., cave deposits that include stalagmites) using thermal ionization mass spectrometry Uranium-series method. For example, in many cases, banding in speleothems is sufficiently uniform and distinct to allow frequency analyses to examine El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) scale variability. In the southwestern region of the United States, compelling evidence exists that changes in precipitation are related to changes in El Nino intensity.The broader impacts of this proposed research center on the development of a new archive of paleoclimatic data from terrestrial sites. Success in demonstrating the fidelity of speleothems for recording climatic events will dramatically improve our understanding of climate.