Caption: John Valley (left), professor of geology and geophysics, and research assistant Ian Orland (right) are pictured in Weeks Hall at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on Nov. 17, 2008, in front of a series of computer printouts depicting 20,000 years of climate history as captured in the growth bands of a cave formation from Soreq Cave near Jerusalem, Israel. As viewed with fluorescence microscopy, bright green bands correspond to rainy seasons and dark areas reveal dry years in this cross-section of a stalactite that grew in the cave from around 20000 B.C. until 1000 A.D. Geochemical analysis of a stalagmite from the same cave shows that the Eastern Mediterranean experienced increasingly dry weather from 100 A.D. to 700 A.D., which may have contributed to the downfall of the Roman and Byzantine Empires in the region 1,400 years ago.
Photo: Bryce Richter
Date: November 2008
High-resolution JPEG

Caption: A series of computer printouts in Weeks Hall at the University of Wisconsin-Madison depict 20,000 years of climate history as captured in the growth bands of a cave formation from Soreq Cave near Jerusalem, Israel. As viewed with fluorescence microscopy, bright green bands represent rainy years and dark areas correspond to dry seasons in this cross-section of a stalactite that grew in the cave from around 20000 B.C. until 1000 A.D. Geochemical analysis of a stalagmite from the same cave shows that the Eastern Mediterranean experienced increasingly dry weather from 100 A.D. to 700 A.D., which may have contributed to the downfall of the Roman and Byzantine Empires in the region 1,400 years ago.
Photo: Bryce Richter
Date: November 2008
High-resolution JPEG

Caption: A series of computer printouts in Weeks Hall at the University of Wisconsin-Madison depict 20,000 years of climate history as captured in the growth bands of a cave formation from Soreq Cave near Jerusalem, Israel. As viewed with fluorescence microscopy, bright green bands represent rainy years and dark areas correspond to dry seasons in this cross-section of a stalactite that grew in the cave from around 20000 B.C. until 1000 A.D. Geochemical analysis of a stalagmite from the same cave shows that the Eastern Mediterranean experienced increasingly dry weather from 100 A.D. to 700 A.D., which may have contributed to the downfall of the Roman and Byzantine Empires in the region 1,400 years ago.
Photo: Bryce Richter
Date: November 2008
High-resolution JPEG

Caption: Growth bands are visible in a polished cross-section of a stalagmite from Soreq Cave near Jerusalem, Israel. Stalagmites form from calcite and other minerals deposited by water in caves and contain chemical signatures of the climate and other physical conditions that existed as the formation grew. Geochemical analysis of a similar stalagmite from the same cave has revealed that large climate changes in the Eastern Mediterranean 1,400 years ago, including increasingly dry weather from 100 A.D. to 700 A.D., may have contributed to the downfall of the Roman and Byzantine Empires in the region.
Photo: provided
Date: unknown
High-resolution JPEG