Continental oxygen isotopic record of the last 170,000 years in Jerusalem

A long radiometrically dated oxygen isotopic record of continental climatic variations since the penultimate glaciation was obtained from a stalagmite deposited in a sealed cave in Jerusalem. This record shows that speleothems have the potential of assigning dates to long- and short-term climatic events, with possible refining of Milankovitch tuning of ice and marine records which themselves are not datable. Short-term (~1000-yr) events are very significant in the region, reaching ~50% of glacial/interglacial fluctuations. The Mediterranean Sea was the most probable source of local precipitation throughout the last glacial cycle.