Home▸Geology & Earth Science▸Speleothem Growth and Paleoclimate Proxies

🪨 Speleothem Growth and Paleoclimate Proxies

Explore how stalactites and stalagmites grow drip by drip inside limestone caves, and how their layered calcite locks in an absolutely-dated archive of ancient rainfall, temperature, and monsoon strength.

Geology & Earth Science3DModerate60 FPS💧 Water 🌍 Earth

This simulator demonstrates the drip-by-drip chemistry of speleothem growth, showing how carbon dioxide degassing drives calcite precipitation, how stalactites and stalagmites build up layer by layer over simulated centuries, and how each layer's oxygen isotope ratio and uranium-thorium age combine to reconstruct a dated paleoclimate curve.

🔬 What It Demonstrates

🎮 How to Use

Adjust drip rate, cave humidity, and simulated rainfall isotope composition to watch a stalactite and stalagmite grow in real time. Step through simulated centuries to add growth layers, then inspect any layer to see its calculated oxygen-18 to oxygen-16 ratio and its uranium-thorium age, and compare the resulting isotope curve against the climate scenario you selected.

💡 Did You Know?

Some actively growing stalagmites deposit less than a tenth of a millimeter of calcite per year, meaning a formation no larger than a dinner plate can silently record over one hundred thousand years of Earth's climate history.

⚙ Under the hood

geologypaleoclimatespeleothemsisotopescave-scienceradiometric-datingearth-science

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install