Oldest dated alpine speleothems
After nearly 15 years of research, our team has published the first comprehensive study of Conturines Cave in the Dolomites of northern Italy. This high-alpine cave, renowned for its cave bear remains, contains an exceptionally thick flowstone and several large stalagmites. These formations are now inactive, partially corroded, and cut by fractures.
In collaboration with colleagues from the Institute of Global Environmental Change at Xi’an Jiaotong University (China), as well as other national and international partners, we successfully dated these speleothems to the late Miocene and Pliocene. The ages are supported by multiple magnetic polarity reversals preserved within the deposits.
With a basal age of approximately 6 million years, the Conturines Cave speleothems represent the oldest radiometrically dated cave formations known from the Alps. They provide compelling evidence for a Miocene origin of this palaeophreatic system, which today is situated at nearly 2,800 meters above sea level.
Read the recent study by Koltai et al. (2026)
Photos: R. Shone, C. Spötl