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A Test of “Annual Resolution” in Stalagmites Using Tree Rings

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Julio L. Betancourt ,
Henri D. Grissino-Mayer ,
Matthew W. Salzer  and
Thomas W. Swetnam
Julio L. Betancourt*
Affiliation:
U.S. Geological Survey, Desert Laboratory, 1675 W. Anklam Road, Tucson, Arizona, 85745, E-mail: jlbetanc@usgs.gov
Henri D. Grissino-Mayer
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, 37996
Matthew W. Salzer
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, 85721
Thomas W. Swetnam
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, 85721
*
1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Telephone: (520) 670-6821 ext. 109.
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Abstract

So-called annual banding has been identified in a number of speleothems in which the number of bands approximates the time interval between successive U-series dates. The apparent annual resolution of speleothem records, however, remains largely untested. Here we statistically compare variations in band thickness from a late Holocene stalagmite in Carlsbad Cavern, Southern New Mexico, USA, with three independent tree-ring chronologies form the same region. We found no correspondence. Although there may be various explanations for the discordance, this limited exercise suggests that banded stalagmites should be held to the same rigorous standards in chronology building and climatic inference as annually resolved tree rings, corals, and ice cores.

Keywords

Speleothemspaleoclimateannual resolutiontree-ring chronologies
Type
Short Paper
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 58 , Issue 2 , September 2002 , pp. 197 - 199
Copyright
University of Washington

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