T-TRAC

Objectives: The primary objective of T-TRAC is the development of the first quantitative land temperature record from the tropics covering several glacial cycles back to 500,000 years ago. For this purpose, we will use a recently developed innovative paleothermometer that is based on physical properties of fluid inclusions in cave formations (speleothems) (Krüger et al., Chem. Geol. 2011), and apply it to well-dated speleothems from Borneo.  The data will be used to constrain glacial-interglacial temperature variations in the tropics, a question that is still strongly debated, and serve as benchmark data for testing climate models. In addition, we will compare the results of the liquid-vapor homogenization method to those from two other new paleo-thermometers, namely the oxygen isotopic difference between fluid inclusion water and calcite, and clumped isotope thermometry. Both methods are known to be affected by disequilibrium processes during calcite formation. The combination of the three methods can therefore shed new light on the conditions of speleothem formation and improve our understanding of the more complex temperature proxies.

Funding: NFR (Frinatek)

Period: 2017-2021

Project Coordinator: Nele Meckler

People involved at UiB: Yves Krüger, Stein-Erik Lauritzen