ANALYSIS OF THE ISOTOPE GEOCHEMISTRY OF SPELEOTHEMS AS A PROXY FOR EEMIAN CLIMATE: AN ANALOG OF THE FUTURE

The Eemian Period, which is approximately dated between 127 ± 1 and 110 ± 1 ka, occurred during marine oxygen isotope stage 5e. This interglacial time period is a close and most recent analogue to the current interglacial in regards to climate conditions and vegetation patterns, but with no intensive human impact. As a result, the Eemian can potentially be used to determine future climatic and environmental changes. The climatic conditions and seasonal variability through the duration of the Eemian is still uncertain. This project investigates carbon and oxygen isotope proxies in a 116,000 year old speleothem from Remouchamps cave in Belgium (RSM17) and a modern speleothem from the same cave (RSM100) in an effort to determine seasonality of the Eemian and draw comparisons to the current interglacial. The sampled Eemian speleothem had clear annual laminations ranging in thickness between 0.42 and 0.65 mm. We sampled the speleothem for isotopes with very high resolution (20 μm) to obtain about 20-35 samples per year. About 90 years were sampled over a 4 cm section of the speleothem. Although caves typically have a muted seasonal cycle compared to aboveground, we expect to be able to resolve seasonal changes in precipitation and soil respiration. This study will add to our understanding of the seasonality during the Eemian.