The red coloration of Goikoetxe Cave’s speleothems (Busturia, Spain): an indicator of paleoclimatic changes

The most commonly used paleoclimatic proxies in speleothem studies are the carbon and oxygen stable isotopes and the trace elements of calcite. However, assessing the incorporation of other components, such as organic matter, may also be of interest in interpreting and reconstructing the climate dur...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Martínez Pillado, Virginia, Iriarte Avilés, Eneko, Álvaro, Ana, Yusta Arnal, Iñaki, Ortega, N., Aranburu Artano, Arantza, Arsuaga Ferreras, Juan Luis
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2020
País:España
Institución:Universidad del País Vasco
Repositorio:Addi. Archivo Digital para la Docencia y la Investigación
OAI Identifier:oai:addi.ehu.eus:10810/71496
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10810/71496
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:speleothem color
organic matter
spectroscopy
fluorescence
Descripción
Sumario:The most commonly used paleoclimatic proxies in speleothem studies are the carbon and oxygen stable isotopes and the trace elements of calcite. However, assessing the incorporation of other components, such as organic matter, may also be of interest in interpreting and reconstructing the climate during speleothem growth. In this work, the incorporation of humic and fulvic acids derived from overlying soils is proposed as the cause of the red coloration of speleothems from the Goikoetxe Cave (Busturia, Bizkaia). Through the application of petrological studies combined with X-ray fluorescence, UV luminescence, Raman spectroscopy and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis, it has been possible to correlate a variation of organic content in the overlying soils and the red coloration, being this stain a main proxy to study and reconstruct the seasonal paleoclimatic parameters during the speleothem formation