Press release for students - Fire clues in cave dripwater
From EGU, July 21, 2016 -- Researchers in Australia and the UK have found that stalagmites and stalactites can be used to help trace past wildfires that burned above the cave. Fires change the chemistry of the water above ground, and these subtle changes leave traces in the stalactites and stalagmites that form when the water drips in the caves underground.