[Aqualist] INQUA session on speleothems

[Barrows, Timothy]

From: Russell Drysdale [rnd at unimelb.edu.au<mailto:rnd at unimelb.edu.au>]


Dear AQUA colleagues,



We wish to draw your attention to the following session at the INQUA meeting in Bern next July:



Recent advances in the radiometric dating of speleothems Speleothems are now firmly established as one of the most important archives for studying Quaternary palaeoclimates. Their reputation has been enhanced in recent years by improved precision in uranium-thorium dating and through the development of uranium-lead dating. For example, through refinements in uranium-thorium dating, it is now possible to estimate the timing of key palaeoclimate events and transitions at per mille precision, whilst uranium-lead dating provides us with absolute chronological control over the whole Quaternary (and well beyond). These breakthroughs are helping us to understand the drivers of past climates.

This session seeks contributions on the development of these methods and the palaeoclimate records they underpin. Papers targeting time periods prior to the Late Pleistocene are particularly welcome, including those which traverse the onset of Northern Hemisphere glaciation, as are those dealing with the perplexities of age models, initial isotopic ratio uncertainties and analytical/sampling error propagation.



We intend to publish the papers (orals and posters) from this session in a special issue of Quaternary Geochronology.



Abstracts are due 30 November 2010. We hope to see you all in Bern next year.



Russell Drysdale

Christoph Spoetl

John Hellstrom





Senior Lecturer

Environmental and Climate Change Research Group Room GG22, Geology Building University of Newcastle Callaghan NSW 2308 Australia

Ph:   +61-2-49215749

Fax:  +61-2-49216925)

http://www.newcastle.edu.au/school/environ-life-science/our_staff/drysdale_russell.html