Last month saw the publication of a new text by Ian Fairchild and former Birmingham staff member Andy Baker which concerns cave archives of environmental change. Although "speleothem" literally means cave deposit, it is the calcareous precipitates (stalagmites, stalactites and flowstones) which have emerged alongside ice cores, ocean floor and lake sediments as vitally important indicators of changing earth environments over timescales of days to millions of years. The book, published by by Wiley-Blackwell, includes the results of much Birmingham research, and is intended as the ideal companion for beginning researchers in this field, but contains much material of wider interest, e.g. in carbonate geology, hydrochemistry and geochemistry, climatology and Quaternary science.
Find out more: www.speleothemscience.info