Stable isotope geochemistry, geothermometry, and geochronology of speleothems from West Virginia

Some speleothems (cave-deposited travertine formations) from two caves in West Virginia were formed in isotopic equilibrium with seepage waters during the interval 200,000 B.P. to the present. Deuterium/hydrogen ratios in fluid inclusions from these speleothems indicate that δ18O values of waters from which they were deposited did not change appreciably during at least part of that interval. From these and other data, we infer that δ18O of …