Geological Society of America

74 Recent Advances in Paleoclimatology and Paleoceanography (Posters)

Sunday, 25 September 2016
9:00 AM - 5:30 PM
Exhibit Hall E/F

USING RAMAN SPECTROSCOPY TO ANALYZE OXYGEN ISOTOPE RATIOS IN CALCITE SPELEOTHEMS

Paper number: 74-1
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 9:00 AM – 5:30 PM

Authors

Caleb Koostra Presenting Author
Center for Human-GeoEnvironmental Studies, Bowling Green, KY
Jason Polk
Center for Human-GeoEnvironmental Studies, Bowling Green, KY
Aaron J. Celestian
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, CA
Jason Lively
Center for Human-GeoEnvironmental Studies, Bowling Green, KY
Jason Lively
Western Kentucky University, Bowling
Gilman Reno Ouellette
Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA

Abstract

Paleoclimate reconstruction is a valuable resource for determining the past climate conditions. The use of Raman spectroscopy on calcite speleothems can be used to determine the oxygen isotope ratios, which can be used as a climate proxy for paleoclimate reconstruction. Oxygen isotope ratios can be used to accurately project past climate conditions including seasonal precipitation amount, temperature influences, and many others. Tropical speleothems grow quickly due to abundant rainfall and ideal conditions for calcite precipitation in a cave environment. Use of Raman spectroscopy for isotope ratio analysis is a relatively new method that has only been used on lab grown calcite and not on calcite speleothems. A speleothem collected from Barbados will be micromilled at selected high-resolution intervals for analysis using mass spectrometry to test for oxygen isotope ratios and trace elements, which also serve as proxies for precipitation and Uranium-series dating will be conducted for multiple layers. The speleothem will then be tested using the Raman method for oxygen isotope ratios to determine if it can produce comparable results. Preliminary results indicate that it may be possible to generate oxygen isotope ratio data using Raman spectroscopy and thus provide a nondestructive method for testing the ratios in speleothems.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 48, No. 7

doi: 10.1130/abs/2016AM-281303

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