D/H ratios in speleothem fluid inclusions: A guide to variations in the isotopic composition of meteoric precipitation?

D/H ratios of fluid inclusion waters extracted from230Th/234U-dated speleothems that were originally deposited under conditions of isotopic equilibrium should provide a direct estimate of the hydrogen isotopic composition of ancient meteoric waters. We present here D/H ratios for 47 fluid inclusion samples from thirteen speleothems deposited over the past 250,000 years at cave sites in Iowa, West Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri. At each site …