Liquid–vapour homogenisation of fluid inclusions in stalagmites: Evaluation of a new thermometer for palaeoclimate research

Glacial–interglacial temperature change in the tropical West Pacific: A comparison of stalagmite-based paleo-thermometers

“…Several new methods make use of these fluid inclusions to estimate the temperatures at which the calcite fabric of the growing stalagmite enclosed the fluid inclusion. These novel methods are based on: i) the density of the water determined from liquidevapor homogenization (Krüger et al, 2011), ii) the concentrations of noble gases dissolved in the water (e.g., Kluge et al, 2008;Scheidegger et al, 2011), and iii) the fractionation of oxygen isotopes between fluid inclusion water and the surrounding calcite host (e.g., van Breukelen et al, 2008;Wainer et al, 2011). Fluid inclusion water isotopes can be measured using different analytical approaches (Affolter et al, 2014;Arienzo et al, 2013;Dublyansky and Sp€ otl, 2009;Vonhof et al, 2006).…”

Novel heating/cooling stage designed for fluid inclusion microthermometry of large stalagmite sections

“…By applying a thermodynamic model that accounts for the effect of surface tension on liquid-vapour homogenisation (Marti et al, 2012) the density of the encapsulated drip water and hence the formation temperature T f of the stalagmite can be calculated based on the measurement of T h(obs) and at least one additional measurement of the vapour bubble radius at a known temperature. Previous studies on recent fluid inclusions from the top part of actively growing stalagmites revealed a potential accuracy of this new temperature proxy of approximately ±0.2°C (Krüger et al, 2011).…”

“…Recently, we have evaluated the applicability of fluid inclusion liquid-vapour homogenisation temperatures as an alternative approach to determine stalagmite formation temperatures (Krüger et al, 2011). The method relies on the measurement of the temperature at which a two-phase liquid-vapour inclusion homogenises to a stable monophase liquid state upon collapse of the vapour bubble.…”

Technical Note: How accurate can stalagmite formation temperatures be determined using vapour bubble radius measurements in fluid inclusions?

“…Recently, the fluid inclusion liquid vapour homogenisation temperature T h has been used as an additional proxy for determining cave air temperatures (Krüger et al, 2011). Fluid inclusions in stalagmites are primary, which means that they are formed during crystal growth and thus contain remnants of the calcite supplying drip water (Kendall and Broughton, 1978).…”

“…Upon being cooled below their formation temperature down to a temperature of maximum tension, they remain in a long-lived metastable state inhibiting a spontaneous nucleation of the vapour phase. To overcome this metastability, we then use ultra-short laser pulses to induce vapour bubble nucleation in the metastable liquid, thus creating a stable two-phase inclusion appropriate for subsequent measurements of the liquid vapour homogenisation temperature T h (Krüger et al, 2007(Krüger et al, , 2011.…”