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Science 21 June 2002:
Vol. 296. no. 5576, pp. 2203 - 2206
DOI: 10.1126/science.1071776
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Reports

Structure of the 8200-Year Cold Event Revealed by a Speleothem Trace Element Record

James U. L. Baldini,1* Frank McDermott,1 Ian J. Fairchild2

Abrupt first-order shifts in strontium and phosphorus concentrations in stalagmite calcite deposited in western Ireland during the 8200-year event (the major cooling episode 8200 years before the present) are interpreted as responses to a drier climate lasting about 37 years. Both shifts are centered on 8330 ± 80 years before the present, coinciding with a large oxygen isotope anomaly and a change in the calcite petrography. In this very high resolution (monthly) record, antipathetic second-order oscillations in phosphorus and strontium reveal decreased growth rates and increased rainfall seasonality. Growth rate variations within the event reveal a two-pronged structure consistent with recent model simulations.

1 Department of Geology, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland.
2 School of Earth Sciences and Geography, Keele University, Staffordshire ST5 5BG, UK.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: james.baldini{at}ucd.ie

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