Limited warming of middle Miocene arid low-latitude climates: Application of clumped isotopes in sabkha environments Marchegiano, Marta Ziegler, Martin Bialik, Or M. De Vleeschouwer, David Reconstructing past climates in hot, arid regions is challenging due to scarce archives and proxies. Clumped isotopes (Δ47) on sabkha calcite-aragonite minerals might alleviate this situation. We apply the Δ47 technique to modern and middle Miocene sabkha samples yielding temperatures of 25.2 ± 2.8 °C to 32.1 ± 3.0 °C. Results show that sabkha calcite-aragonite minerals mainly reflect summer half-year temperatures, when most precipitation occurs. Reconstructed δ18Owater (SMOW) (SMOW—standard mean ocean water) values (3.2 ± 1.0‰ and 5.2 ± 1.2‰) scale with the intensity of evaporation in these intertidal, supratidal, and lagoonal settings. Despite higher middle Miocene atmospheric CO2, reconstructed sabkha temperatures are similar to modern values, suggesting a low climate sensitivity. Thus, sabkha Δ47 is a valuable tool for paleotemperature reconstructions in low-latitudes continental settings. 2025-10-27T13:39:49Z 2025-10-27T13:39:49Z 2025-09-23 journal article Marta Marchegiano, Martin Ziegler, Or M. Bialik, David De Vleeschouwer; Limited warming of middle Miocene arid low-latitude climates: Application of clumped isotopes in sabkha environments. Geology 2025; doi: https://doi.org/10.1130/G53550.1 https://hdl.handle.net/10481/107496 10.1130/G53550.1 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ open access Atribución 4.0 Internacional Geological Society of America