Environmental Magnetism of Cave Deposits

Abstract

Caves are deep time archives of environmental conditions at the surface. Traditional paleoclimate proxies, such as oxygen and carbon isotopic ratios, are preserved within actively growing carbonate speleothems and can be constrained in time using high-resolution 230Th geochronology. While these isotopic speleothem proxies have revolutionized paleoclimate studies, here we discuss the use of magnetic measurements to constrain changes in the flux of Fe-bearing minerals (their composition, concentration, and magnetic grain size distribution) within the context of environmental change.