This award is for a study to retrieve, analyze and interpret isotopic and chemical proxy records of El Nino-Southern Oscillation events from speleothems in caves documented on the Island of Niue (19 degrees 00'S, 169 degrees 50'W) in the western tropical Pacific. The study will focus on modern speleothem deposits and cave drip waters to characterize speleothem growth rates, their dating potential, their isotopic composition, and their relation to modern water and vegetation.
