Chinese Cave Graffiti Tells of Ancient Droughts & Strife

An ancient cave with centuries of Chinese characters written on the walls reveals the history of severe droughts. By tying the cave graffiti to ratios of chemical elements in the stalagmites growing in the cave, a team of scientists created a snapshot of the climate over the last 500 years, said study co-author Sebastian Breitenbach, a paleoclimatologist at the University of Cambridge in England. "Even slight droughts — slight excursions in the climate regime that may be just a couple of y