Studies of Cave Sediments: Physical and Chemical Records of Paleoclimate

John E. Mylroie and Ira D. Sasowsky' Caves occupy incongruous positions in both our culture and our science. The oldest records of modem human culture are the vivid cave paintings from southern France and northern Spain, which are in some cases more than 30,000 years old (Chauvet, et ai, 1996). Yet, to call someone a "caveman" is to declare them primitive and ignorant. Caves, being cryptic and mysterious, occupied important roles in many cultures. For example, Greece, a country with abundant karst, had the oracle at Delphi and Hades the god of death working from caves. People are both drawn to and mortified by caves. Written records ofcave exploration exist from as early as 852 BC (Shaw, 1992). In the decade of the 1920's, which was rich in news events, the second biggest story (as measured by column inches of newsprint) was the entrapment of Floyd Collins in Sand Cave, Kentucky, USA. This was surpassed only by Lindbergh's flight across the Atlantic (Murray and Brucker, 1979).

From the reviews:

"This is the first book to deal specifically with cave sediments and so is an important resource for people conducting research in caves, e.g. geoscientists, speleologists and archaeologists. The book includes a range of cave sites, applicable techniques with in-depth reviews and several case studies to provide an excellent tool for those already involved in cave research and those interested in venturing into cave-sediment studies."

(Mark Stephens, Journal of Sedimentary Research, Vol 75, 2005)

"The dual nature of the subject and the wide range of topics and analytical approaches might give the superficial impression of a heterogeneous group of papers cobbled together into a book. On the contrary, these topics are well integrated into a fairly coherent picture. Even the local studies provide wide-ranging concepts."

(Arthur N. Palmer, and Margaret v. Palmer, Journal of Cave and Karst Sediments, Vol 67, no. 2, p. 140-141)

"This book aims to provide a comprehensive treatment of cave deposits, with a particular focus on the palaeoclimate record they hold. ... covering key aspects of both clastic sediments and precipitates from many karst regions around the globe. ... this book serves well as an account of the state-of-art in the study of cave sediments and their value in palaeoenvironmental reconstruction. ... it is likely to be of great interest to higher-level undergraduates, postgraduates and academics ... ." (Stefan H. Doerr, The Holocene, Issue 15, 2005)

"Cave sediments studies pose multiple problems, both with the difficult access to many underground sites and also with the correlation of the cave record with surface events ... . The subject is often over-looked by hard-line surface investigators, but this book should help promote and develop this databank of geological history. ... This book is attractively presented ... . Its contents should be compulsory reading for anyone researching Quaternary chronology and palaeo-environments. The volume should also be read by a much wider audience ... ." (Tony Waltham, Geological Magazine, Vol. 124 (4), 2005)