Speleothem Secrets - Can Caves Tell The Future?

Careful analysis of an unlikely candidate – cave deposits – might help us predict future climate change.

- Wang Xianfeng and Dr Lauriane Chardot

The Landscapes Of Halong Bay in Vietnam, Mulu in Borneo, and Krabi in Thailand hide many mysteries, as with many other places in Southeast Asia where caves are abundant.

In these dark and damp chambers, white spikes of smooth rock grow from the ceiling and the ground, and sometimes intersect to form columns of diverse circumference. These unique rock formations are called speleothems: While most of us admire them for their natural beauty, they are, in fact, the key to unlocking the secrets of climate change and providing important clues about what the Earth’s future climate may hold.

SEA: Speleothem Central

Speleothems are sculpted by a suite of physical and chemical reactions between water and soil containing carbon dioxide and limestone – a type of rock formed by the compaction of shells over millions of years. These shells are rich in calcium carbonate, one of the most abundant minerals on Earth, and the key mineral forming speleothems.

Southeast Asia hosts the perfect environment for the formation of speleothems: A warm and humid climate with frequent rainfall, soils rich in carbon dioxide due to bacterial activity and plant root respiration, and abundant limestone, because a large part of the region used to be underwater millions of years ago.