The driving force behind Quaternary glacial-interglacial cycles and much associated climate change is widely considered to be orbital forcing. However, previous versions of the iconic Devils Hole (Nevada) subaqueous calcite record exhibit shifts to interglacial values ~10,000 years before orbitally forced ice age terminations, and interglacial durations ~10,000 years longer than other estimates. Our measurements from Devils Hole 2 replicate virtually all aspects of the past 204,000 years of earlier records, except for the timing during terminations, and they lower the age of the record near Termination II by ~8000 years, removing both ~10,000-year anomalies. The shift to interglacial values now broadly coincides with the rise in boreal summer insolation, the marine termination, and the rise in atmospheric CO2, which is consistent with mechanisms ultimately tied to orbital forcing.

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An analytical line for stable isotope analyses of water recovered from fluid inclusions in minerals was built and successfully tested. The line is based on the principle of continuous-flow analysis of water via high-temperature reduction on glassy carbon. It includes a custom-designed set of high-efficiency crushers and a cryo-focusing cell. This paper provides details of the line design and discusses strategies for line conditioning and mitigation of memory effects. The line allows measurements of hydrogen and oxygen isotopes during a single acquisition. The precision of the analyses depends on the amount of water released from the inclusions. The best results are obtained for samples containing at least 0.1-0.2 microL (0.06-0.11 micromol) H(2)O. For such samples precision is better than 1.5 per thousand for deltaD and 0.5 per thousand for delta(18)O (1sigma). Smaller amounts of water can be measured but at lower precision. Analyses of modern calcite formed under stable conditions in a deep cave allowed assessment of the accuracy of the analyses. The deltaD values measured in fluid inclusions of this working standard match the deltaD value of the parent water, and the oxygen isotope values agree within ca. 0.5 per thousand. This indicates that fluid inclusions trapped in calcite at near-ambient temperatures (e.g. speleothems and low-temperatures phreatic calcite) faithfully preserve the original isotopic composition of the parent waters.

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Abstract. Investigations into the genesis and dynamical properties of cave ice are essential for assessing the climate significance of these underground glaciers. We drilled an ice core through a 7.1 m-thick ice body filling a large cavern of the dynamic ice cave Eisenriesenwelt (Austria). In addition to visual core inspections, quasi-continuous measurements at 2 cm resolution comprised particulate matter, stable water isotope (δ 18 O, δD) and electrolytic conductivity profiles supplemented by specifically selected samples analyzed for tritium and radiocarbon. We found that recent ablation led to an almost complete loss of bomb-derived tritium removing any ice accumulated since, at least, the early fifties leaving the actual ice surface even below the natural tritium level. The small particulate organic masses rendered radiocarbon dating inconclusive, though a crude estimate gave a basal ice age in the order of several thousand years. The visual stratigraphy and all investigated parameters showed a clear dichotomy between the upper 2 m and the bottom 3 m of the core, which points to a substantial change in the ice formation process. Main features of the core comprise the changing appearance and composition of distinct cryocalcite layers, extremely low total ion content and a surprisingly high variability of the isotope signature. Co-isotope evaluation (δD versus δ 18 O) of the core in comparison with data from precipitation and karst spring water clearly indicate that ice formation is governed by (slow) freezing of dripping water.