The application of clumped isotope thermometry to the terrestrial environment

块状同位素地球化学是一种测量碳酸盐矿物形成温度的新方法，将应用于澳大利亚和新西兰的陆地物质(土壤碳酸盐、湖泊沉积和洞穴)。该方法将从碳酸盐中提取的稀有同位素(例如，质量为47的二氧化碳，即碳-13、氧-18、氧-16)的丰度或“聚集”与它们的形成温度联系起来，并与矿物沉淀所在的宿主水的氧-18：氧-16值无关。要调查的材料跨越最后一次冰川-间冰期过渡，并将提供可靠的过去温度估计和水域的氧-18值，从而能够建立水文平衡(例如，降水/蒸发)。

Clumped-isotope geochemistry, a novel method for measuring the temperature of formation of carbonate minerals, will be applied to terrestrial materials (soil carbonates, lake deposits and speleothems) from Australia and New Zealand. The method relates the abundance or 'clumping' of rare isotopes (for example, carbon dioxide of mass 47 as carbon-13, oxygen-18, oxygen-16) extracted from carbonates to their formation temperature and is independent of the oxygen-18:oxygen-16 value of the host water from which the mineral precipitated. The materials to be investigated span the Last Glacial-Interglacial Transition and will provide robust past temperature estimates and the delta-oxygen-18 values of waters, thereby permitting hydrological balances (for example, precipitation/evaporation) to be constructed.