The origin of erratic calcite speleothems in the Dangcheomul Cave (lava tube cave), Jeju Island, Korea

Analytical pyrolysis and stable isotope analyses reveal past environmental changes in coralloid speleothems from Easter Island (Chile)

“…Speleothems in lava tubes generally consist of siliceous minerals owing to the mineralogy and chemical composition of the host basalts [30,31]. Nevertheless, calcium carbonate or calcium sulfate minerals (in the form of calcite or gypsum, respectively) have been reported on the walls and ceilings of lava tubes [32][33][34]. For instance, the internal structure of many cave corals, or coralloids, found in lava tube caves shows deposition layers with different mineralogical compositions, alternating between siliceous and carbonate minerals [27,35].…”

“…The morphology, mineralogy and genesis of speleothems from lava tubes have been investigated by several researchers using conventional mineralogical and isotope analyses [25,27,32]. Analysis of δ 13 C has been successfully applied to characterize the calcite fraction of speleothems.…”

Reconstruction of the Northeast Asian monsoon climate history for the past 400 years based on textural, carbon and oxygen isotope record of a stalagmite from Yongcheon lava tube cave, Jeju Island, Korea

“…It is a typical lava tube cave formed by lava flows which are between 200,000 and 300,000 years old (Hwang et al, 2005). It was reported that carbonate speleothems are being actively formed in some lava tube caves on Jeju Island (Woo et al, 2008a(Woo et al, , 2008b and Yongcheon Cave is one of the caves that include carbonate speleothems. The cave, about 2960 m long, was accidently discovered during drilling for an electrical pole.…”

“…5000 BP (Ji et al, 2008). Carbonate speleothems started to grow from the supply of calcium and carbonate ions dissolved from carbonate sands by meteoric water (e.g., Woo et al, 2008b). Because of their outstanding universal values, Yongchoen and Dangcheomul caves were inscribed as a World Natural Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2007. Yongcheon Cave provides excellent geological conditions to carry out paleoclimatic research using stalagmites compared to other natural (mostly limestone) caves because of its simple geological setting (Fig.…”

“…Growth rate and texture of speleothems can change depending upon outside climate changes and surface conditions and therefore can provide significant paleoclimatic information (Woo et al, 2008b;Boch et al, 2011;Tan et al, 2003Tan et al, , 2013. Qian and Zhu (2002) reconstructed changes in amount of precipitation during the Little Ice Age (LIA) near Beijing based on changes in laminae thickness.…”