Interpretación genética de tres estalagmitas de la Cueva de Don Juan (Valencia)aplicación del Análisis Arquitectural de Espeleotemas

Abstract

The potential of stalagmites as paleoclimate record resides in the possibility to obtain accurate time series of high resolution paleoclimate proxies, typically based in stable isotopes and trace elements. The integrated study of the internal microstrati- graphy of stalagmites improves the understanding of the processes associated with their growth and allows to obtain addi- tional paleoclimate information. Martín-Chivelet et al. (2017) proposed the “Speleothem Architectural Analysis” as a tool to interpret the stalagmites growth processes that take place at different time scales. This method consists of describing the sta- lagmites according to six hierarchical architectural elements: unconformity bounded units (6th order), morphostratigraphic units (5th order), stacking pattern sets (4th order), speleothem fabrics (3rd order), growth layers (2nd order) and crystallites (1st order). We used this method to analyse three stalagmites from Don Juan Cave (Valencia) in order to obtain a detailed recons- truction of the growth phases of each speleothem and to analyse changes in genetic factors over time. The results obtained have allowed us to identify intervals with evolutionary trends of paleohydrological significance.