Project Grant 2202682

This $234,972 National Science Foundation project grant, awarded under the Geosciences program (CFDA 47.050), will fund research to develop new paleotemperature records for North America. The University of Michigan, in collaboration with the University of New Mexico, will analyze cave deposits known as speleothems collected from various caves across the continental U.S. Using clumped isotope and strontium isotope analyses on approximately 200 mg subsamples, the researchers aim to determine absolute paleosurface temperatures for important past climate periods in the southwestern and northern U.S. The temperature data generated for the late Pleistocene and Holocene epochs will provide useful constraints for climate models. Specifically, the project seeks to address temperature variability and gradients across North America during the middle Holocene, Younger Dryas, Mystery Interval, Last Glacial Maximum, and Last Interglacial. The results will be disseminated to further scientific understanding of integrated Earth system processes and climate change impacts.