SPREADING OF CARBONATE ROCKS OF MONGOLIAN PLATEAU

We have used speleothems from six caves along a north-south transect in Eastern Siberia and the Mongolian Gobi Desert to track the evolution of permafrost and desert aridity during the last ∼500 ky. Meteoric waters can penetrate into caves and cause formation of speleothems only when cave temperature (which approximates the mean annual surface air temperature) is above 0˚C, and the effective precipitation during the humid season is positive. Periods of speleothem deposition therefore provide a tracer for presence or absence of the permafrost in Siberia, and of the arid conditions in the Gobi.