Paleoclimate implications of mass spectrometric dating of a British flowstone

The timing of growth phase in a cave flowstone from Yorkshire, England, has been precisely dated by thermal ionization mass spectrometric ²³⁸ U- ²³⁴ U- ²³⁰ Th dating. Six growth periods of both short duration and fast growth rate are separated by nondepositional hiatuses. The ages of these phases were determined to be 128.8±2.7, 103.1±1.8, 84.7±1.2, 57.9±1.5, 49.6±1.3, and 36.9±0.8 ka. There is a remarkably good correlation between the periods of active speleotherm growth and the timing of solar insolation maxima, derived from orbital parameters which has not previously been reported. Our results provides new evidence of the importance of variations in solar insolation for terrestrial paleoclimate and offer the potential for derivation of a paleowetness index from speleothem growth. -from Authors