noaa-cave-14268
Dante Cave, Namibia, Holocene Stalagmite Stable Isotope and Mineralogy Data
Sletten, H.R.; Railsback, L.B.; Liang, F.; Brook, G.A.; Marais, E.; Hardt, B.F.; Cheng, H.; Edwards, L.
Dante Cave, Namibia, Holocene Stalagmite Stable Isotope and Mineralogy Data
2013-04-01
NCDC-Paleoclimatology
ONLINE Files
Pending
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/14268
Investigator
H.R.
Sletten
Investigator
L.B.
Railsback
Investigator
F.
Liang
Investigator
G.A.
Brook
Investigator
E.
Marais
Investigator
B.F.
Hardt
Investigator
H.
Cheng
Investigator
L.
Edwards
earth science
paleoclimate
speleothems
depth,null,null,millimeter,null,speleothems,null,null,N,null
earth science
paleoclimate
speleothems
calcite,calcium carbonate,null,percent,null,speleothems,raw,null,N,null
earth science
paleoclimate
speleothems
delta 13C,calcium carbonate,null,per mil VPDB,null,speleothems,corrected,isotope ratio mass spectrometry,N,corrected for aragonite
earth science
paleoclimate
speleothems
age,null,null,calendar year before present,null,speleothems,null,null,N,null
earth science
paleoclimate
speleothems
delta 18O,calcium carbonate,null,per mil VPDB,null,speleothems,raw,isotope ratio mass spectrometry,N,null
earth science
paleoclimate
speleothems
growth rate,calcium carbonate,null,millimeter per year,null,speleothems,raw,null,N,null
earth science
paleoclimate
speleothems
delta 13C,calcium carbonate,null,per mil VPDB,null,speleothems,raw,isotope ratio mass spectrometry,N,null
earth science
paleoclimate
speleothems
delta 18O,calcium carbonate,null,per mil VPDB,null,speleothems,corrected,isotope ratio mass spectrometry,N,corrected for aragonite
earth science
paleoclimate
speleothems
carbon isotopes
earth science
paleoclimate
speleothems
oxygen isotopes
earth science
paleoclimate
speleothems
geochemistry
geoscientificInformation
drought
hydrology
5 cal yr BP
0 cal yr BP
Complete
-19.4
-19.4
17.883333
17.883333
Continent
Africa
Southern Africa
Namibia
Dante Cave>LATITUDE -19.4>LONGITUDE 17.883333
None
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English
DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI
National Centers for Environmental Information, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/data-access/paleoclimatology-data
DATA Center Contact
Bruce
Bauer
bruce.a.bauer@noaa.gov
paleo@noaa.gov
303-497-6280
303-497-6513
325 Broadway, E/NE31
Boulder
CO
80305-3328
USA
online
ASCII
Hillary R. Sletten, L. Bruce Railsback, Fuyuan Liang, George A. Brook, Eugene Marais, Benjamin F. Hardt, Hai Cheng, R. Lawrence Edwards. 2013. A petrographic and geochemical record of climate change over the last 4600 years from a northern Namibia stalagmite, with evidence of abruptly wetter climate at the beginning of southern Africa's Iron Age, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Vol. 376, pp. 149-162. DOI: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2013.02.030
Stalagmite DP1, a speleothem 1.6 m in length from Dante Cave in northeastern Namibia, provides a paleoclimate record of a gradual transition from wetter to drier conditions from 4.6 to 3.3 ka BP, a variable but pronounced dry period from 3.3 to 1.8 ka, and a wetter but variable period from 1.8 ka to the present. This record is based on 30 U/Th radiometric dates and their resulting calculated growth rates, and on C and O stable isotope data, relative proportions of aragonite and calcite in layers, measurements of stalagmite width along layers, and observation of petrographic surfaces suggestive of changes from drier to wetter conditions and vice versa. The stalagmite's first deposition, which seemingly followed conditions too wet for deposition, coincided with desiccation in the Sahara and the end of the African Humid Period there. Gradual drying continued and led to a sustained very dry period from 3322 ± 11 to 1786 ± 10 BP, a "2-3 ka BP Dry Period". That dry period began and ended abruptly. The abrupt transition from drier to wetter conditions at 1.8 ka coincides with the beginning of the Iron Age in southern Africa, suggesting that wetter conditions facilitated migrations and/or changes in food production that may have contributed to a transition in human technologies and lifestyles. This transition is coeval with transitions to colder conditions in ice core records from Greenland and Antarctica. The DP1 record suggests considerable change over the past 1800 years, with at least three wet/dry cycles. The wettest conditions may have occurred relatively recently, between 230 and 100 BP (A.D. 1720 and 1850), so that early European explorers may have seen and/or heard reports of conditions among the wettest during the later Holocene in southern Africa.
GET DATA
https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/speleothem/africa/dantecave2013sletten.txt
USA/NOAA
DIF
Version 9.8.4
2019-02-20
2019-02-20