Controls on trace element Sr–Mg cave waters implications for speleothem climatic records.pdf

Chemical Geology 166 2000 255–269 locatechemgeo Controls on trace element Sr–Mg compositions of carbonate cave waters: implications for speleothem climatic records a, b a b Ian J. Fairchild , Andrea Borsato , Anna F. Tooth , Silvia Frisia , Christopher J. Hawkesworth c , Yiming Huang a,c , Frank McDermott d , Baruch Spiro e a Department of Earth Sciences, Keele Uniersity, Staffordshire ST5 5BG, UK b Museo Tridentino di Scienze Naturali, Via Calepina 14, 38100 Trent, Italy c Department of Earth Sciences, Open Uniersity, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK d Department of Geology, Uniersity College, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland e NERC Isotope Geology Laboratory, Keyworth, Nottingham NG12 5GG, UK Received 17 September 1999; accepted 5 November 1999 Abstract At two caves Clamouse, S France and Ernesto, NE Italy , cave drip and pool waters were collected and sampled at intervals over a 2–3 year period. MgCa and SrCa concentration ratios, corrected for marine aerosols, are compared with those of bedrocks and, in some cases, aqueous leachates of soils and weathered bedrocks. Cave waters do not lie along mixing lines between calcite and dolomite of bedr