Magnesium in subaqueous speleothems as a potential palaeotemperature proxy

Russell Drysdale (), Isabelle Couchoud, Giovanni Zanchetta, Ilaria Isola, Eleonora Regattieri, John Hellstrom, Aline Govin, Polychronis C. Tzedakis, Trevor Ireland, Ellen Corrick, Alan Greig, Henri Wong, Leonardo Piccini, Peter Holden and Jon Woodhead
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Russell Drysdale: The University of Melbourne
Isabelle Couchoud: The University of Melbourne
Giovanni Zanchetta: University of Pisa
Ilaria Isola: Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia
Eleonora Regattieri: Istituto di Geoscienze e Georisorse, IGG-CNR
John Hellstrom: The University of Melbourne
Aline Govin: Paris-Saclay University
Polychronis C. Tzedakis: University College London
Trevor Ireland: The Australian National University
Ellen Corrick: The University of Melbourne
Alan Greig: The University of Melbourne
Henri Wong: Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation
Leonardo Piccini: Universita degli Studi di Firenze
Peter Holden: The Australian National University
Jon Woodhead: The University of Melbourne

Nature Communications, 2020, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract Few palaeoclimate archives beyond the polar regions preserve continuous and datable palaeotemperature proxy time series over multiple glacial-interglacial cycles. This hampers efforts to develop a more coherent picture of global patterns of past temperatures. Here we show that Mg concentrations in a subaqueous speleothem from an Italian cave track regional sea-surface temperatures over the last 350,000 years. The Mg shows higher values during warm climate intervals and converse patterns during cold climate stages. In contrast to previous studies, this implicates temperature, not rainfall, as the principal driver of Mg variability. The depositional setting of the speleothem gives rise to Mg partition coefficients that are more temperature dependent than other calcites, enabling the effect of temperature change on Mg partitioning to greatly exceed the effects of changes in source-water Mg/Ca. Subaqueous speleothems from similar deep-cave environments should be capable of providing palaeotemperature information over multiple glacial-interglacial cycles.

Date: 2020
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-18083-7

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