ABSTRACT
Speleothems have advantages as Holocene palaeoclimatic archives because uranium-series dating yields very precise ages directly in calendar years. In spite of being subterranean deposits, speleothem formation is an integral part of the meteoric water cycle and therefore also governed by surface climatic change. Changes in the concentration of various trace components in speleothem calcite (isotopes, trace elements and organic matter) provide a link to external climate conditions. Each of these components displays individual sensitivity to climate conditions, some more directly than others, and these are discussed in this chapter. A multi-proxy approach to speleothem analysis can provide very precise climatic information.
