Finding clues to Earth's past climate in stalagmites

Stalagmites and stalactites hold clues to the Earth’s past climate and were one of the archives used by researchers to find out more about the 1430s climate. Here climate scientists Dominik Fleitmann (who took part in the study) and Anamaria Häuselmann drill a calcite core in a stalagmite from Milandre Cave in Switzerland to verify its age and calcite quality before taking the sample to the laboratory.

Credit: Adam Hasenfratz

• The Coldest Decade of the Millennium? How the cold 1430s led to famine and disease (1 December 2016)

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