Addressing Past Monsoon Variability from Speleothems

Numerous observations indicate that speleothems can record signatures of the past climate variability. Systematics of stable isotopes and trace elements in speleothems and current methods of dating are discussed. δ ¹⁸O in Indian speleothems is presently being used as a monsoon proxy. Several records from Indian karst locations are available, many of these cover recent several millennia and some extend back to ~280 ka. Salient features of monsoon variability reconstructed so far from Indian speleothems is briefly discussed. Some of the δ ¹⁸O records show presence of non-persistent periodic changes suggesting controls of subtle variations in solar output and internal changes in the climate system.