Stalagmites from Ning Bing range, WA inform about cyclones

Zebra Rock Gallery was visited by researchers from Cornell College, Iowa, USA who are researching stalagmites (Speleothem) from Western Australia for what they can tell us about tropical cyclones. It appears that the deposition of mud in the stalagmites is related to flooding of caves during tropical cyclones.

The pattern of mud deposited can give information about the occurrence of tropical cyclones over time. Dr. Rhawn Denniston and two undergraduate students together with John Cugley from the Cave Exploration Group, WA visited our workshop today and were assisted by William Nunn, Rod Creagh and Colin Hackett to slice the collected stalagmites in half longitudinally. One of the two sections will be sent to the WA Museum (as a specimen) and the other to the USA for mineral analysis.

Further specimens will be collected from Windjana Gorge and other sites in WA. The results to be published in scientific peer-reviewed geology journals will hopefully correlate with the fossil and geophysical records and may also be predictive of future tropical cyclones.

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