Number: 02 Date: 16/09/2009 Category: Natural resources and environment Contact: José María Calaforra Chordi Telephone: 8+34) 950 015024 Email: jmcalaforra@ual.es

THE UNIVERSITY OF ALMERIA STUDIES THE CLIMATIC CHANGES BASED ON CALCITE STATACTITES AND STALAGMITES

Researchers of the University of Almeria UAL are analysing, for the first time ever at an international level, the paleoclimatic record of calcite speleothems (stalactites and stalagmites). The experts hope that these calcium structures, an excellent climatic natural record, will provide information about extremely dry periods of time. The main objective of this study consists of getting to know climatic changes throughout the history of the Earth in order to reconstruct the past and deduce the existence of general climatic behaviour trends, as well a the subsequent responses of the environment in temporary scales of tens to thousands of years. This study, funded by 11,4950 euros, is part of the R&D&I project of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation PALEOGYP (Espeleotemas yesíferos y registro paleoclimatic- Speleothems, gypsum beds and paleoclimatic record). The precipitation of a mineral depends on the environmental conditions in that time, such us temperature, humidity and the composition of the water that goes through the soil. Such information is obtained from chemical compounds (stable isotopes like oxygen-18 or deuterium), which provide information about all these variables as they existed in the time when said system precipitated. That is, they reveal very interesting information from the climatic change point of view. ’The period of time we are studying is from 100,000 till 40,000 years ago. The climatic record of this period corresponds to a natural variation of the environment parameters of the planet, because human activity was not incidental at that time’”, José María Calaforra Chordi assured, head researcher of the project. Complementary information about the climate ’We hope that the data obtained from calcite speleothems provide different complementary information to the one obtained from the carbonate system controls’ (for example, the Aracena groove in Huelva). This project opens a new research field, which has not been a top priority so far. Its strong innovative character has made the design of a new methodology necessary. This methodology, entirely carried out by the University of Almeria, is the result of a slight variation of the proceedings followed in the studies of calcite speleothems. The sample areas are classified into two large groups: carbonate and calcite speleothems. Regarding the first one, we must stand out the Aracena groove (Huelva), the cave of El Soplao (Cantabria) and the caves of Nerja and Agua, in Malaga and Granada respectively. The calcite speleothems included in said project comprise the Karst in Yesos de Sorbas (Almeria) and in Bolonia (Italy), the Caves of Cristales y las Espadas (Naica, Mexico) and the Geoda de Pulpí (Almeria). These formations take thousand of years to grow. That’s why experts try not to get samples or take them only from fragmented structures on the ground.