Terrestrial hot-spring travertine: An important window into paleoclimate reconstruction

This paper is the result of hydrogeological and environmental geological survey engineering.

Objective Terrestrial hydrothermal spring travertine, as a common terrestrial carbonate sediment/rock in volcanic and geothermal areas, is widely used to restore paleoenvironment, but the proxy indicators that can reflect paleoclimate information are mostly controlled by complex external conditions. The extraction of paleoclimate information from hot spring travertine requires further research.

Methods This paper summarizes the current successful cases of hydrothermal travertine in reconstructing paleoclimate information, and sorts out various climatic and non- climatic influencing factors related to the deposition of hydrothermal travertine.

Results The authors believe that C- O isotopes, major and trace elements are more feasible for the selection of palaeoclimate restoration proxies for hydrothermal travertine. The palynological data can be used as corroborative information due to the limitation of sporopollen preservation, and can be used in conjunction with other climate proxies. indicators to test whether the palaeoclimate significance is correct or not. At the same time, it is necessary to compare various climatic proxies in thermal spring travertine with relatively mature paleoclimate research methods such as biostratigraphy, ice cores, stalagmites, etc., so that various paleoclimate proxies can be verified with each other, so as to better obtain the information on the medieval climate of the hot spring travertine.

Conclusion It is feasible to extract and restore reliable paleoclimate information by using various climatic proxies in hot spring travertine.