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Informationen zum Autor Ian Fairchild was originally a geologist, then more specifically a sedimentologist, morphing into a physical geographer with leanings to environmental chemistry, before putting more geology back in the mix. Hence, he is now Professor of Geosystems at the University of Birmingham, UK, researching both on modern environments and interpreting those in deep time, with carbonates, waters and climates as linking themes. Andy Baker was trained as a physical geographer, and worked at the interface of geology, physical geography, and environmental engineering. He is currently a Professor at the University of New South Wales and a chief investigator in Australia's National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training. Klappentext Speleothems (mineral deposits that formed in caves) are currently giving us some of the most exciting insights into environments and climates during the Pleistocene ice ages and the subsequent Holocene rise of civilizations. The book applies system science to Quaternary environments in a new and rigorous way and gives holistic explanations the relations between the properties of speleothems and the climatic and cave setting in which they are found. It is designed as the ideal companion to someone embarking on speleothem research and, since the underlying science is very broad, it will also be invaluable to a wide variety of others. Students and professional scientists interested in carbonate rocks, karst hydrogeology, climatology, aqueous geochemistry, carbonate geochemistry and the calibration of climatic proxies will find up-to-date reviews of these topics here. The book will also be valuable to Quaternary scientists who, up to now, have lacked a thorough overview of these important archives.Additional resources for this book can be found at: www.wiley.com/go/fairchild/speleothem. Zusammenfassung Speleothems (mineral deposits that formed in caves) are currently giving us some of the most exciting insights into environments and climates during the Pleistocene ice ages and the subsequent Holocene rise of civilizations. Inhaltsverzeichnis Preface, xi Acknowledgements, xiii I Scientifi c and geological context, 1 1 Introduction to speleothems and systems, 3 1.1 What is all the fuss about?, 3 1.2 How is this book organized?, 11 1.3 Concepts and approaches of system science, 13 1.4 The speleothem factory within the karst system, 18 2 Carbonate and karst cave geology, 28 2.1 Carbonates in the Earth system over geological time, 28 2.2 Lithologies of carbonate host rocks, 34 2.3 Carbonate diagenesis and eogenetic karst, 47 2.4 Speleogenesis in mesogenetic and telogenetic karst (with contributions from John Gunn and David J Lowe), 55 2.5 Cave infilling, 64 2.6 Conclusion, 71 3 Surface environments: climate, soil and vegetation, 73 3.1 The modern climate system, 73 3.2 Water isotopes in the atmosphere, 84 3.3 Soils of karst regions, 94 3.4 Vegetation of karst regions, 102 3.5 Synthesis: inputs to the incubator, 104 II Transfer processes in karst, 105 4 The speleothem incubator, 107 4.1 Introduction to speleophysiology, 107 4.2 Physical parameters and fl uid behaviour, 109 4.3 Water movement, 114 4.4 Air circulation, 122 4.5 Heat flux (authored by David Domínguez-Villar), 137 4.6 Synthesis: cave climatologies, 145 5 Inorganic water chemistry, 148 5.1 Sampling protocols for water chemistry, 148 5.2 The carbonate system, 152 5.3 Weathering, trace elements and isotopes, 156 5.4 Carbon isotopes, 173 5.5 Evolution of cave water chemistry: modelling sources and environmental signals, 180 6 Biogeochemistry of karstic environments, 187 <...
