Holocene climate change, permafrost and cryogenic carbonate formation: insights from a recently deglaciated, high-elevation cave in the Austrian Alps
Cryogenically formed carbonate particles represent a rather new class of speleothems whose origin is directly linked to the presence of perennial ice in the subsurface. Recent studies concluded that dating these deposits provides important time constraints on the presence and the thickness of permaf...
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Copernicus Publications
2014
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fttriple:oai:gotriple.eu:oai:doaj.org/article:dd2a1a745c0c4a78a79c6395685d0840 2023-05-15T16:36:48+02:00 Holocene climate change, permafrost and cryogenic carbonate formation: insights from a recently deglaciated, high-elevation cave in the Austrian Alps C. Spötl H. Cheng 2014-07-01 https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-10-1349-2014 http://www.clim-past.net/10/1349/2014/cp-10-1349-2014.pdf https://doaj.org/article/dd2a1a745c0c4a78a79c6395685d0840 en eng Copernicus Publications 1814-9324 1814-9332 doi:10.5194/cp-10-1349-2014 http://www.clim-past.net/10/1349/2014/cp-10-1349-2014.pdf https://doaj.org/article/dd2a1a745c0c4a78a79c6395685d0840 undefined Climate of the Past, Vol 10, Iss 4, Pp 1349-1362 (2014) geo envir Journal Article https://vocabularies.coar-repositories.org/resource_types/c_6501/ 2014 fttriple https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-10-1349-2014 2023-01-22T17:50:45Z Cryogenically formed carbonate particles represent a rather new class of speleothems whose origin is directly linked to the presence of perennial ice in the subsurface. Recent studies concluded that dating these deposits provides important time constraints on the presence and the thickness of permafrost, e.g., during the last glacial period. More precisely, these carbonates record episodes of progressive karst water freezing. Such conditions have been associated with periods of permafrost thawing allowing the infiltration of meltwater into formerly dry, frozen caves. To shed more light on the origin of the coarsely crystalline variety of these cryogenic cave carbonates – CCCcoarse for short – we examined a high-elevation cave site in the western part of the Austrian Alps which is located in an area dominated by permafrost features and transformed from an ice cave into an essentially ice-free cave during the past decade. Two side chambers of the main gallery revealed cryogenic calcite deposits whose isotopic composition indicates that they formed in individual pools of water carved in ice which underwent very slow freezing under closed-system conditions, i.e., enclosed in ice. 230Th dating shows that most of these carbonates formed ca. 2600 yr BP. Based on comparisons with other palaeoclimate archives in the Alps this thawing episode did not occur during a climate optimum, nor did CCCcoarse form in this cave during, e.g., the Roman or the Medieval Warm Periods. Our results suggest that the occurrence of CCCcoarse, at least in mountain regions characterized by discontinuous permafrost, may be more stochastic than previously thought. Given the inherent heterogeneity of karst aquifers and the important role of localized water infiltration in modifying the thermal structure of the subsurface, we caution against attributing CCCcoarse occurrences solely to peak warming conditions, while confirming the unique significance of these deposits in providing robust age constraints on permafrost thawing episodes. Article in Journal/Newspaper Ice permafrost Unknown Climate of the Past 10 4 1349 1362 |
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geo envir C. Spötl H. Cheng Holocene climate change, permafrost and cryogenic carbonate formation: insights from a recently deglaciated, high-elevation cave in the Austrian Alps |
topic_facet |
geo envir |
description |
Cryogenically formed carbonate particles represent a rather new class of speleothems whose origin is directly linked to the presence of perennial ice in the subsurface. Recent studies concluded that dating these deposits provides important time constraints on the presence and the thickness of permafrost, e.g., during the last glacial period. More precisely, these carbonates record episodes of progressive karst water freezing. Such conditions have been associated with periods of permafrost thawing allowing the infiltration of meltwater into formerly dry, frozen caves. To shed more light on the origin of the coarsely crystalline variety of these cryogenic cave carbonates – CCCcoarse for short – we examined a high-elevation cave site in the western part of the Austrian Alps which is located in an area dominated by permafrost features and transformed from an ice cave into an essentially ice-free cave during the past decade. Two side chambers of the main gallery revealed cryogenic calcite deposits whose isotopic composition indicates that they formed in individual pools of water carved in ice which underwent very slow freezing under closed-system conditions, i.e., enclosed in ice. 230Th dating shows that most of these carbonates formed ca. 2600 yr BP. Based on comparisons with other palaeoclimate archives in the Alps this thawing episode did not occur during a climate optimum, nor did CCCcoarse form in this cave during, e.g., the Roman or the Medieval Warm Periods. Our results suggest that the occurrence of CCCcoarse, at least in mountain regions characterized by discontinuous permafrost, may be more stochastic than previously thought. Given the inherent heterogeneity of karst aquifers and the important role of localized water infiltration in modifying the thermal structure of the subsurface, we caution against attributing CCCcoarse occurrences solely to peak warming conditions, while confirming the unique significance of these deposits in providing robust age constraints on permafrost thawing episodes. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
C. Spötl H. Cheng |
author_facet |
C. Spötl H. Cheng |
author_sort |
C. Spötl |
title |
Holocene climate change, permafrost and cryogenic carbonate formation: insights from a recently deglaciated, high-elevation cave in the Austrian Alps |
title_short |
Holocene climate change, permafrost and cryogenic carbonate formation: insights from a recently deglaciated, high-elevation cave in the Austrian Alps |
title_full |
Holocene climate change, permafrost and cryogenic carbonate formation: insights from a recently deglaciated, high-elevation cave in the Austrian Alps |
title_fullStr |
Holocene climate change, permafrost and cryogenic carbonate formation: insights from a recently deglaciated, high-elevation cave in the Austrian Alps |
title_full_unstemmed |
Holocene climate change, permafrost and cryogenic carbonate formation: insights from a recently deglaciated, high-elevation cave in the Austrian Alps |
title_sort |
holocene climate change, permafrost and cryogenic carbonate formation: insights from a recently deglaciated, high-elevation cave in the austrian alps |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-10-1349-2014 http://www.clim-past.net/10/1349/2014/cp-10-1349-2014.pdf https://doaj.org/article/dd2a1a745c0c4a78a79c6395685d0840 |
genre |
Ice permafrost |
genre_facet |
Ice permafrost |
op_source |
Climate of the Past, Vol 10, Iss 4, Pp 1349-1362 (2014) |
op_relation |
1814-9324 1814-9332 doi:10.5194/cp-10-1349-2014 http://www.clim-past.net/10/1349/2014/cp-10-1349-2014.pdf https://doaj.org/article/dd2a1a745c0c4a78a79c6395685d0840 |
op_rights |
undefined |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-10-1349-2014 |
container_title |
Climate of the Past |
container_volume |
10 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
1349 |
op_container_end_page |
1362 |
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