0000000000384237
AUTHOR
Dieter Buhl
The magnesium isotope record of cave carbonate archives
Here we explore the potential of magnesium (&delta;<sup>26</sup>Mg) isotope time-series data as continental climate proxies in speleothem calcite archives. For this purpose, a total of six Pleistocene and Holocene stalagmites from caves in Germany, Morocco and Peru and two flowstones from a cave in Austria were investigated. These caves represent the semi-arid to arid (Morocco), the warm-temperate (Germany), the equatorial-humid (Peru) and the cold-humid (Austria) climate zones. Changes in the calcite magnesium isotope signature with time are compared against carbon and oxygen isotope records from these speleothems. Similar to other proxies, the non-trivial interaction of a …
Hydrogeochemistry and fractionation pathways of Mg isotopes in a continental weathering system: Lessons from field experiments
Abstract The potential of magnesium isotope records from cave carbonate archives (speleothems) has been documented but remains underexplored. This is due to the limited knowledge regarding the complex suite of physico-chemical and biological disequilibrium fractionation processes affecting meteoric fluids in the soil zone, the carbonate hostrock and calcite precipitation in the cave. This study presents δ 26 Mg data from a monitored cave in Germany (Bunker Cave) including rain water (δ 26 Mg: − 0.70 ± 0.14‰), soil water (δ 26 Mg: − 0.51 ± 0.10‰) and drip waters (δ 26 Mg: − 1.65 ± 0.08‰) sampled between November 2009 and May 2011. Field precipitation experiments, i.e., calcite precipitat…