Wolkberg Cave Stalagmite Stable Isotope Data 58-40 ka ----------------------------------------------------------------------- World Data Center for Paleoclimatology, Boulder and NOAA Paleoclimatology Program ----------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: PLEASE CITE ORIGINAL REFERENCE WHEN USING THIS DATA!!!!! NAME OF DATA SET: Wolkberg Cave Stalagmite Stable Isotope Data 58-40 ka LAST UPDATE: 6/2009 (Original receipt by WDC Paleo) CONTRIBUTOR: Steffen Holzkämper, Stockholm University IGBP PAGES/WDCA CONTRIBUTION SERIES NUMBER: 2009-061 WDC PALEO CONTRIBUTION SERIES CITATION: Holzkämper, S., et al. 2009. Wolkberg Cave Stalagmite Stable Isotope Data 58-40 ka. IGBP PAGES/World Data Center for Paleoclimatology Data Contribution Series # 2009-061. NOAA/NCDC Paleoclimatology Program, Boulder CO, USA. ORIGINAL REFERENCE: Holzkämper, S., K. Holmgren, J. Lee-Thorp, S. Talma, A. Mangini, and T. Partridge. 2009. Late Pleistocene stalagmite growth in Wolkberg Cave, South Africa. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Vol. 282, pp. 212-221. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2009.03.016. ABSTRACT: Little is known about the sequence of climate and environmental change in southern Africa during the last glacial period, in spite of the intimations from records, such as Antarctic ice cores and archaeological sites, that very marked changes took place which would have had profound effects on vegetation and animal distributions across the sub-continent. High-resolution, (semi-) continuous climate and environmental records can be extracted from suitable cave speleothems. Speleothems are reasonably abundant in southern Africa, but their occurrence is patchy in time and space and the records can be difficult to interpret. Here we report our assessment of the stalagmite W5 from Wolkberg Cave in the northeastern part of South Africa, as an archive for glacial-period climatic and environmental shifts. The cave is located at 1450 m asl, in the dolomitic limestones of the Transvaal System in an area currently dominated by C4 grass vegetation. Nine U/Th dates show growth from 58 to 46 ka, and a second brief phase ca. 40 ka, indicating that the available moisture was sufficient to allow speleothems to form. The d18O and d13C values along the growth axis show variability in the order of 2 per mil for the former, while variability in the latter is characterized by a shift from values near -2 per mil in the older section to +2 per mil or more in the younger part. These high d13C values are probably the combined result of CO2 degassing of the percolating soil water prior to the carbonate precipitation in the cave chamber, the increasing dominance of C4 over C3 vegetation, and the high percentage of aragonite towards the stalagmite's top. The retrieved data point towards increasingly drier and colder conditions during the growth period of the stalagmite. Furthermore, the high-frequency variations of d18O values indicate the presence of short term climate oscillations that are probably linked to shifts of the Intertropical Convergence Zone. GEOGRAPHIC REGION: Southern Africa PERIOD OF RECORD: 58 - 40 KYrBP FUNDING SOURCE: Swedish Research Council DESCRIPTION: Stable oxygen and carbon isotope data from TIMS U-series dated stalagmite W5 from Wolkberg Cave, Limpopo Province, South Africa, as proxies for change in vegetation, temperature and precipitation. Wolkberg Cave: 24°06'S, 29°53'E, 1450m. elev. DATA: 1. Wolkberg Cave U/Th dates Column 1: Distance from Top, cm. Column 2: dU, per mil Column 3: dU +/- Column 4: 238U, ug/g Column 5: 238U +/- Column 6: 230Th, pg/g Column 7: 230Th +/- Column 8: Age, ka Column 9: Age +/- Dist. dU 238U 230Th Age (cm) (‰) ± (ug/g) ± (pg/g) ± (ka) ± 0.3 4620.7 32.9 0.0991 0.0002 2.9284 0.0791 40.1 1.3 2 4275.5 12.9 0.3922 0.0008 12.4398 0.0610 46.9 0.3 3.5 4315.4 13.3 0.4551 0.0009 14.6842 0.0778 47.4 0.4 6 4310.9 13.6 0.4142 0.0008 13.5042 0.1485 48.1 0.7 9.7 4394.0 13.2 0.4886 0.0010 16.8945 0.1284 50.6 0.5 13.3 4434.5 13.0 0.3882 0.0008 13.6293 0.1022 51.1 0.5 15.5 4374.0 14.5 0.3785 0.0008 13.6662 0.2187 53.5 1.1 17.3 4426.2 12.9 0.3923 0.0008 14.8371 0.1113 56.0 0.5 19.5 4330.8 14.0 0.4470 0.0009 16.9587 0.1357 57.4 0.6 2. Wolkberg Cave Stable Isotope Data Column 1: Age, ka BP Column 2: d13C, per mil PDB Column 3: d18O, per mil PDB Age d13C d18O 39.8 2.62 -4.25 39.9 3.66 -5.66 40 3.73 -3.53 40.1 3.95 -3.05 40.2 3.34 -3.52 40.3 3.83 -3.3 40.4 3.16 -3.62 46.35 2.94 -4.68 46.39 1.73 -4.66 46.44 1.9 -4.81 46.48 1.32 -4.43 46.53 1.65 -4.9 46.58 1.55 -5.19 46.62 1.56 -5.07 46.67 2.04 -4.9 46.72 1.5 -4.93 46.76 1.57 -4.56 46.81 2.26 -4.13 46.85 2.16 -4.66 46.9 2.61 -4.94 46.95 2.56 -4.58 46.99 2.69 -4.82 47.04 2.59 -4.67 47.09 2.07 -5.16 47.13 2.68 -5.18 47.18 2.56 -5.22 47.22 2.88 -4.58 47.27 2.8 -6.06 47.32 2.52 -5.03 47.36 3 -4.81 47.41 2.39 -5.33 47.45 1.76 -4.88 47.5 2.14 -5.4 47.55 2.05 -5.35 47.59 2.31 -5.28 47.64 2.41 -4.99 47.69 2.66 -4.61 47.73 2.55 -6.48 47.78 2.02 -4.8 47.82 2.55 -5.04 47.87 2.51 -4.93 47.92 2.68 -4.71 47.96 2.54 -5.31 48.01 2.36 -4.9 48.06 2.84 -4.94 48.1 2.85 -4.94 48.15 2.33 -5.21 48.19 2.55 -4.71 48.24 2.14 -4.52 48.29 2.44 -4.92 48.33 2.73 -4.8 48.38 2.59 -4.78 48.42 2.32 -4.52 48.47 2.05 -4.58 48.52 1.93 -4.28 48.56 2.1 -4.25 48.61 2.58 -4.87 48.66 2.32 -4.16 48.7 1.99 -4.38 48.75 2.25 -4.69 48.79 2.29 -4.68 48.84 2.7 -4.3 48.89 2.28 -4.85 48.93 2.79 -3.54 48.98 2.86 -3.7 49.03 2.08 -4.51 49.07 2.14 -4.36 49.12 2.33 -4.05 49.16 2.11 -5.25 49.21 2.3 -4.39 49.26 2.33 -4.67 49.3 2.32 -4.34 49.35 2.41 -4.19 49.4 2.27 -4.85 49.44 2.15 -4.91 49.49 2.07 -4.73 49.53 1.88 -4.65 49.58 1.86 -4.45 49.63 1.39 -4.83 49.67 1.8 -4.4 49.72 2.09 -5 49.76 2.19 -4.51 49.81 2.09 -4.77 49.86 2.09 -3.51 49.9 2.1 -3.44 49.95 2 -3.87 50 1.96 -4.07 50.04 2.18 -3.94 50.09 2.19 -3.66 50.13 1.95 -4.35 50.18 1.85 -4.75 50.23 1.84 -4.66 50.27 1.87 -4.67 50.32 1.85 -4.67 50.37 1.92 -4.54 50.48 1.96 -4.5 50.6 1.93 -4.72 50.62 1.89 -5.24 50.63 1.54 -4.08 50.65 1.81 -4.31 50.66 1.25 -5.56 50.68 1.38 -5.34 50.69 1.25 -4.69 50.71 1.23 -4.32 50.71 1.39 -5.45 50.72 1.11 -5.32 50.73 1.15 -4.84 50.75 0.87 -4.95 50.76 0.62 -5.05 50.77 0.92 -4.47 50.79 1.07 -4.65 50.8 0.9 -5.18 50.81 0.93 -4.6 50.83 0.7 -4.62 50.84 1.15 -4.72 50.85 0.98 -4.68 50.87 1.2 -4.02 50.88 1.12 -4.36 50.89 0.63 -4.74 50.91 1.13 -3.91 50.92 1.16 -4.16 50.93 1.1 -4.63 50.94 0.59 -4.82 50.96 0.23 -5.13 50.97 0.58 -4.68 50.98 0.9 -4.33 51 0.49 -4.27 51.01 0.19 -4.1 51.02 0.01 -5.09 51.04 -0.11 -4.9 51.05 -0.23 -4.16 51.06 -0.32 -4.05 51.31 -0.77 -4.37 51.42 -1.03 -4.91 51.52 -1.31 -5.35 51.63 -0.91 -5.04 51.74 -0.53 -4.33 51.85 -0.51 -4.35 51.95 -0.74 -5.33 52.06 -0.56 -4.45 52.17 -0.61 -4.36 52.27 -0.77 -4.22 52.38 -1.03 -4.7 52.49 0.06 -4.62 52.59 -0.3 -4.3 52.7 -0.35 -3.77 52.81 -0.33 -3.47 52.91 -0.94 -4.25 53.02 -0.81 -4.74 53.13 -0.69 -4.88 53.23 -0.79 -5.07 53.34 -1.12 -4.95 53.45 -1 -4.45 53.55 -1.23 -4.05 53.66 -1.6 -4.6 53.77 -2.15 -4.67 53.87 -1.23 -3.92 53.98 -0.55 -3.62 54.09 -1.09 -4.32 54.19 -1.83 -4.11 54.3 -1.29 -4.29 54.41 -2.48 -4.78 54.52 -3.43 -5.01 54.62 -2.57 -5.23 54.73 -3.07 -4.9 54.84 -3.21 -4.81 54.94 -1.35 -3.93 55.05 -1.23 -4.22 55.16 -1.06 -5.04 55.26 -1.09 -3.66 55.37 -0.91 -4.03 55.48 -1.26 -4.35 55.58 -0.85 -3.59 55.69 -1.46 -3.92 55.8 -1.68 -3.36 55.9 -2.32 -3.4 56.01 -1.56 -3.79 56.12 -1.03 -3.61 56.22 -0.79 -4.94 56.33 -1.07 -4.18 56.44 -1.68 -4.25 56.54 -1.85 -4.12 56.65 -1.79 -3.49 56.76 -2.49 -4.13 56.86 -2.2 -4.51 56.97 -2.29 -4.28 57.08 -2.64 -3.88 57.19 -2.21 -3.8 57.29 -2.26 -4.29 57.4 -1.79 -3.94 57.51 -1.36 -4.33 57.61 -1.34 -4.06 57.72 -1.46 -3.76 57.83 -1.72 -3.94 57.93 -3.5 -3.53