5.Ulusal Speleoloji Sempozyumu

USE OF CAVE DEPOSITS IN PALEOCLIMATE
RESEARCH: THE CLIMATE IN THE MIDDLE TAURUS
DURING THE LAST 45000 YEARS BASED ON
STALAGMITE RECORDS OF THE INCESU CAVE
Gizem Erkan 1 , Mertcan Özbakır 1 , C. Serdar Bayarı 1 , Hai Cheng 2 ,
N. Nur Özyurt 1 , Dominik FleItmann 3
1, Hacettepe Üniversitesi, Jeoloji Mühendisliği Bölümü, Beytepe, TR-06800 Ankara, Türkiye gizems@
hacettepe.edu.tr
2, Department of Geology & Geophysics University of Minnesota 108 Pillsbury Hall, 310 Pillsbury Dr.
SE Minneapolis, MN 55455-0219 cheng021@umn.edu
3, University of Bern, Institute of Geological Sciences and Oeschger Centre for Climate Change
Research, Baltzerstrasse 1+3, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
fleitmann@geo.unibe.ch
BİLDİRİLER
ABSTRACT
Climate is one of the most important factors that determines the living conditions of all creatures.
Topography, snow cover, ice volume, sea surface temperature, atmospheric composition, ocean
currents, greenhouse gases, variations in Earth’s orbit and rotation, volcanic activities are the major
actors of climate system. Changes in one or more of these actors results in climate system changes.
However, processes affecting the global climate change and the interactions between them are not well
understood yet. The reliable prediction of the future climate changes requires a robust understanding
of the past changes in climate and the interactions between the processes that result in these changes.
The data on past climate changes are obtained from the present records of the “natural archives”. Major
natural archives include tree rings, polar ice cores, ocean-sea-lake sediments and cave deposits/sediments.
Compared to others, cave sediments (speleothems) become prominent as they contain more
specific records of past climate changes that can be dated with much better precision. Stalagmites
are preferred over the other types of cave deposits in past climate research. The structural, textural,
chemical and isotopic properties of stalagmites are affected by external environment conditions. When
supported highly precise uranium/thorium (Th-230) age data, the oxygen-18, carbon-13 isotope and
trace element data obtained along the growth axis of stalagmites provide invaluable information about
past environment conditions. The oxygen-18 variations recorded in a cave deposit constitute a reliable
proxy for the changes in surface temperature and source of precipitation during the period of its formation.
Similarly, the variations in carbon-13 isotope record reflect changes in dominant plant types and
the environmental conditions that affect their abundance. In this study, oxygen-18 and carbon-13 data,
obtained from a stalagmite belonging to the Incesu Cave located in the middle Taurus range, are used
to evaluate the past climate and environment changes during the last 45.000 years. The isotope records
of sample reveal that important global climate events like Younger Dryas, Last Glacial Maximum, Heinrich
Events (3-4) and 8200 BP event have influenced the climate in the middle Taurus range.
Keywords: paleoclimate, paleoenvironment, cave deposit
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