Late Quaternary palaeotemperature records for two Tasmanian speleothems

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Abstract
Two stalagmites from a limestone cave in the Florentine Valley, Tasmania, dated by 14C and uranium series methods, provide an estimate of palaeotemperatures on the basis of 18O/16O analysis. One of the stalagmites shows continuous deposition between 98 ka and 55 ka BP at a uniform rate of 20 mm/ka. The δ18O data which have a positive relationship with mean annual temperature indicate slightly higher than present day temperatures at 95 ka BP, followed by a gradual decline, culminating in a temperature minimum at about 62 ka BP. This was followed by a rapid temperature rise to a peak still below present‐day temperature at about 57 ka BP. The other stalagmite has an age range of approximately 4300–2900 years BP and an extremely rapid growth rate of 500 mm/ka. 18O/16O ratios indicate significant temperature lowering up to at least 2°C during the Late Holocene, in excellent agreement with previous palaeotemperature data from a cave site in northern Tasmania.