History and variability of Asian interior aridity recorded by eolian flux in the Chinese Loess Plateau during the past 7 Ma

Eolian flux in the Chinese Loess Plateau was reconstructed by measuring the dry bulk density and CaCO3 content of the late Cenozoic loess-paleosol-red clay sequences in the Lingtai profile. Comparison of eolian flux variation between the Lingtai profile and the ODP sites 885/886 in the North Pacific shows a significant wet-dry variability in addition to a gradual drying trend in the dust source regions in interior Asia. Especially, the increase of eolian fluxes from both continental and pelagic eolian sediments indicates a sharp drying of the dust source regions between 3.6 and 2.6 MaBP, which might be attributed to the tectonic uplift of the Tibetan Plateau, which cut down the moisture input to the interior Asia. The average value and variability of eolian flux are higher after 2.6 MaBP than before, which may be related to the Quaternary climatic fluctuations on the glacial-interglacial timescale after the commencement of major Northern Hemisphere Glaciations. The eolian fluxes of the Lingtai profile and Core V21-146 in northwest Pacific show a synchronous variation on the 10(4)-10(5) a timescale, indicating that the flux variations from both continental and marine records are closely correlated to the Quaternary climatic fluctuation forced by the ice volume changes on a global scale.

三门峡宋家店黄土－古土壤序列的地层学研究及其古环境记录

The Sanmen Gorge area is located in the southernmost margin of the Chinese Loess Plateau with well developed eolian deposit sequence for the past 2.6 Ma, providing a key site for further understanding of the evolution history of the East Asian monsoon since late Pliocene. This study attempted to characterize the stratigraphy and paleoclimate record of the loess-paleosol sequence in the Songjiadian section. The work involved includes systematic field investigation, paleomagnetic and rock magnetic analyses, grain size and major chemical composition analyses, and multiple proxy measurements of magnetic susceptibility, color reflectance and the ratio of CBD-dissolvable iron to the total iron (FeD/FeT). By comparisons of the Songjiadian section with well studied loess sections in the west of the Sanmen Gorge, the spatial variations of the East Asian monsoon was evaluated for some periods during which typical loess or paleosols developed. The following conclusions have been obtained. 1. Stratigraphic correlation and paleomagnetic result demonstrate that the loess-paleosol sequence in the Songjiadian section was accumulated from 2.6Ma, and is generally a complete and continuous loess sequence. However, notable differences from type loess sections have been identified for a few loess and paleosol units, featured by absence or anomalous thickness in the Songjiadian section. 2. Magnetic susceptibility and chromaticity records clearly reveal the loess-paleosol cycles, and indicate that the Sanmen Gorge area has been warmer and more humid than the Lingtai and Jingchuan sections in the western central Loess Plateau since the Early Pleistocene. 3. Grain size distribution patterns are typical of eolian dust, and show a great similarity between various units of loess and paleosols, and between the S32 and the underlying Red Clay through the Songjiadian profile, suggesting the eolian origin for the loess, paleosols and the Red Clay. 4. Comparison of the FeD/FeT curves from different loess sections indicates a stronger chemical weathering in the Songjiadian section and notable enhancement around 1800, 800 and 600 ka BP, implying the strengthening of the East Asian monsoon during these periods. In contrast, it was weakened at 1100 ka BP. Generally, the summer monsoon shows a gradually decreasing trend during the entire Pleostocene, but the spatial pattern typified by an increasing trend in weathering intensity from north to south remained the same. 5. The loess unit L9 in the Songjiadian section displays two geomagnetic field anomalies with the midpoint ages of 0.917 and 0.875 Ma respectively, with a segment of 12 ka. They are demonstrated to be equivalent to the Santa Rosa and Kamikatsura geomagnetic excursions. 6. Magnetite is the main magnetic carrier for both loess and paleosols. Maghemite concentration is higher in paleosols than in loess, and is an important carrier for the enhanced magnetic susceptibility in paleosols. Magnetic fabric analysis suggests a dominant N-S wind direction prevailing in the L9 and L15, while the summer winds were dominantly in NNE-SSW direction during the S8 period, notably differing from previous studies.

黄土-红粘土化学风化与晚新生代气候变化——甘肃平凉白水剖面为例

Late Cenozoic has witnessed a series of climate-environmental change which ends with a transitional shift from greenhouse to icehouse conditions. In last two decades, scientists began to employ the tectonic uplift and its weathering effect to interpret the climatic changes during the late Cenozoic. However, this endeavor has partly been restricted by the lacking of regional and global chemical weathering data. The loess-red clay deposit in the Loess Plateau may record the weathering features of the detritus material from the wide range upwind of the Loess Plateau. Therefore geochemistry of the loess-plaeosol and red clay sequences may provide insights into the regional chemical weathering regime and the connection between the chemical weathering and the late Cenozoic climate-environmental change Here we selected 319 samples from the Baishui section near the Pingliang City, Gansu Province, and analyzed them with X-ray fluorescence. Based on the result, we reconstruct the chemical weathering history of the Baishui section since 6Ma. We chose CIA as the proxy for chemical weathering intensity. The CIA ratio in soil units is higher than in adjacent loess horizons, but lower than in the red clay, in good agreement with the field observation. The CIA ratios of the Baishui section correlates well with the global ice volume fluctuations, indicating that the global cooling may contribute a lot to the chemical weathering variations in Chinese Loess Plateau. There are at least 3 million-year time scale variations that can be identified in the chemical weathering intensity curve, i.e., between 3.3 to 2.1 Ma, 1.7 to 0.9 Ma and from 0.9Ma. We think these may reflect the combined effect of the tectonic uplift and ice sheets on monsoon intensity. Other time scale variations can be also observed. In the period between 2.4 and 0.8 Ma, the CIA record display the 400,000 years cycle, which may be resulted from the Tibetan uplift during the Pliocene-early Pleistocene which have significantly amplified the monsoon response sensitivity to the orbital-scale variations in insolation. From 1.2 Ma, the 100,000 years period became intensifying, and particularly after 0.8 Ma, the earlier monsoon response at 400,000 year periodicity was overwhelmed by the ice sheet forcing at 100,000 year periodicity. These may indicate that the expansions of the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets may have crossed a threshold, which enforce the monsoon responding at the 100,000 year periodicity.

白水剖面黄土-红粘土化学风化的粒度效应

The loess-red clay deposit in the Loess Plateau, as large regions mixed in the dust depositional areas, may recorded the chemical weathering features and recycling of the detritus material of the earth’s surface from the wide range upwind of the Loess Plateau. And the loess-red clay sequence is rare information for recovering the continent's weathering history of Late Cenozoic, as it’s clear sense of age. The concentrations of elements in loess-red clay are largely affected by grain size. Therefore, we divided samples of a long loess-red clay section and six spacial sections into three fractions in order to counteracting the effect of particle size on the values of weathering proxies. First, the loess unit L1 and S1 of six sections located at Guyuan, Baishui, Changwu, Yongshou, Yangling and Lantian, Chinese Loess Plateau were sampled. These samples were divided into three fractions: <5μm, 5-20μm, 20-63μm, which were then analyzed for the primary elements using an X-ray fluorescence analyser. Results show that the effect of particle is much smaller on the fraction <5μm than other fractions. Therefore, the fraction <5μm can reflect the change of chemical weathering intensity much better. In addition, we divided Baishui section samples into three fractions, and analyzed them with X-ray fluorescence for primary elements. Results show that the value of CIA vary in different size fractions, indicating different weathering progress. Elements K, Na, Ca and Mg in the <5μm fraction have a sequence which is the reverse of Bowen Sequence. This may be a important sense for the change of source regions.

中国北方风成堆积的风化作用与环境变迁—U-Th、~(10)Be及元素地球化学的研究

The surface of the Earth is continuously undergoing changes as a result of weathering-erosion, plate tectonics and volcanic processes. Continental weathering-erosion with its complex rock-water interactions is the central process of global biochemical cycling of elements, and affects the long-term ocean atmosphere budget of carbon dioxide both through the consumption of carbonic acid during silicate weathering and through changes in the weathering and burial rates of organic carbon. Rates of the weathering-erosion depend on a variety of factors, in particular rock properties and chemical composition, climate (especially rainfall), structure, and elevation. They are quite variable on a regional scale. Thus, environmental changes in a region could be indicated by the history of weathering-erosion in the region. Recent attention has focused on increased silicate weathering of tectonically uplifted areas in the India-Asia collision zone as a possible cause for falling atmospheric CO_2 levels in the Cenozoic era. The wind blown dust deposits in the Loess Plateau is derived from the arid and semiarid regions in northwestern China, in turn, where the deposits have been derived from the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau and the high mountains around. Therefore, geochemistry of the wind blown loess-paleosol and red clay sequences may provide insight both to paleoenvironmental changes on the Loess Plateau, and to the uplift and weathering-erosion histories of the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau. In this paper, uranium-thorium series nuclides and cosmogenic ~(10)Be have been employed as tracers of weathering intensities and histories of the dust sediments in the Loess Plateau. Major elements, such as Na, Al, Fe etc., are also used to estimate degree of chemical alteration of the dust sediments and to rebuild the history of weathering on the Loess Plateau. First of all, using a low-level HPGe γ-ray detector, we measured U and Th series nuclides in 170 loess and paleosol samples from five sites in the Loess Plateau, going back 2.6 Ma. The results show that ~(238)U activities are disequilibrium with its daughter nuclide ~(230)Th in young loess-paleosol sequence, indicating that weathering was happened both in dust deposition site and in dust source regions. Using concentrations of ~(238)U and ~(232)Th in the samples, we estimated the amounts of ~(238)U leached out of from paleosols due to weathering. Further, based on analyses of ~(230)Th in paleosols deposited in the past ca. 140 ka, we determined when the paleosols weathered in the source regions. We conclude that most of the weathering in the dust-source regions may have occurred during the interglacials before dust deposition.

晚中新世以来中国北方风成沉积的磁性地层学和沉积学研究

The past two decades have witnessed an unprecedented growth of interest in the palaeoenvironmental significance of the Pleistocene loess deposits in northern China. However, it is only several years ago that the Tertiary red clay sequence underlying Pleistocene loess attracted much attention. One of the major advances in recent studies of eolian deposits on the Loess Plateau is the verification of the eolian origin for the Tertiary red clay sediments. The evidence of the eolian origin for the red clay is mainly from geochemical and sedimentological studies. However, sedimentological studies of the red clay deposits are still few compared with those of the overlying loess sediments. To date, the red clay sections located near Xifeng, Baoji, Lantian, Jiaxian, and Lingtai have been studied, with an emphasis on magnetostratigraphy. These sections have a basal age ranging from ～4.3 Ma to ～7.0 Ma. The thickness of the sections varies significantly, depending perhaps on the development of local geomorphological conditions and the drainage system. Although the stratigraphy of the red clay sections has been recorded in some detail, correlation of the red clay sequences has not yet been undertaken. Geological records (Sun J. et al., 1998) have shown that during glacial periods of the Quaternary the deserts in northem China were greatly expanded compared with modern desert distribution. During interglacial periods, desert areas contracted and retreated mostly to northwestern China because of the increase in inland penetration of monsoonal precipitation. According to pedogenic characteristics of the red clay deposits, the climatic conditions of the Loess Plateau is warmer and wetter generally in the Neogene than in the late Pleistocene. Panicle analyses show that grain size distribution of the red clay sequence is similar to that of the paleosols in the Pleistocene loess record, thus implying a relatively remote provenance of the red clay materials. However, the quantitative or semiquantitative estimates of the distance from the source region to the Loess Plateau during the red clay development remains to be investigated. In this study, magnetostratigraphic and sedimentological studies are conducted at two thick red clay sequences-Jingchuan and Lingtai section. The objectives of these studies are focused on further sedimentological evidence for the eolian origin of the red clay, correlation of red clay sequences, provenance of the red clay, and the palaeoclimate reconstruction in the Neogene. Paleomagnetic studies show that the Jingchuan red clay has a basal age of 8.0 Ma, which is 1 million years older than the previously studied Lingtai section. The Lingtai red clay sequence was divided into five units on the basis of pedogenica characteristics (Ding et al., 1999a). The Jingchuan red clay sequence, however, can be lithologically divided into six units according to field observations. The upper five units of the Jingchuan red clay can generally correlate well with the five units of the Lingtai red clay. Comparison of magnetic susceptibility and color reflectance records of four red clay sections suggests that the Lingtai red clay sequence can be the type-section of the Neogene red clay deposits in northern China. Pleistocene loess and modem dust deposits have a unimodal grain-size distribution. The red clay sediments at Jingchuan and Lingtai also have a unimodal grain-size distribution especially similar to the paleosols in the Pleistocene loess record. Sedimentological studies of a north-south transect of loess deposits above S2 on the Loess Plateau show that loess deposits had distinct temporal and spatial sedimentary differentiation. The characteristics of such sedimentary differentiation can be well presented in a triangular diagram of normalized median grain size, normalized skewness, and normalized kurtosis. The triangular diagrams of the red clay-loess sequence at Lingtai and Jingchuan indicate that loess-paleosol-red clay may be transported and sorted by the same agent wind, thus extending the eolian record in the Loess Plateau from 2.6 Ma back to about 8.0 Ma. It has been recognized that during the last glacial maximum (LGM) the deserts in northern China had a distribution similar to the present, whereas during the Holocene Optimum the deserts retreated to the area west of the Helan Mountains. Advance-retreat cycles of the deserts will lead to changes in the distance of the Loess Plateau to the dust source regions, thereby controlling changes in grain size of the loess deposited in a specific site. To observe spatial changes in sedimentological characteristics of loess during the last glacial-interglacial cycle, the texture of loess was measured along the north-south transect of the Loess Plateau. Since the southern margin of the Mu Us desert during the LGM is already known, several models of grain size parameters versus the minimum distance from the source region to depositional areas were developed. According to these semiquantitative models, the minimum distance from the source region to Lingtai and Jingchuan areas is about 600 km during the Neogene. Therefore the estimated provenance of the Tertiary red clay deposits is the areas now occupied by the Badain Jaran desert and arid regions west of it. The ratio of the free iron to total iron concentration attests to being a good proxy indicator for the summer monsoon evolution. The Lingtai Fe_20_3 ratio record shows high values over three time intervals: 4.8-4.1 Ma, 3.4-2.6 Ma, and during the interglacial periods of the past 0.5 Ma. The increase in summer monsoon intensity over the three intervals also coincides with the well-developed soil characteristics. It is therefore concluded that the East-Asia summer monsoon has experienced a non-linear evolution since the late Miocene. In general, the East Asia summer monsoon was stronger in Neogene than in Quaternary and the strongest East Asia summer monsoon may occur between 4.1 and 4.8 Ma. The relatively small ice volume and high global temperature may be responsible for the strong summer monsoon during the early Pliocene.

陇西盆地晚第三纪风尘沉积的地层学研究

In Asia, the significant environment changes in Cenozoic include: uplift of Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau, formation Asian monsoon system, Aridification in Central Asia. One of major advances in recent studies of eolian deposit on the Loess Plateau is the verification of the eolian origin for the Late Tertiary Hipparion Red-Earth (also called red-Clay) underlying the Quaternary loess. Thus, the Late Tertiary eolian deposit, which has been proven a nearly continuous terrestrial record and sensitive to climate change, provides us an important archive to understand these above Cenozoic environment events. The deposit in eastern Loess Plateau has been extensively studied, while the property and age of deposit underlying the Quaternary loess in western plateau remains unclear. In this paper, detail investigations were made on the Sedimentology, geochemistry of Longxi section, a typical section in western Loess Plateau, to address its origin, and on micromammalian fossils and magnetostratigraphy to address its age. The main conclusions are presented as following: 1. The sedimentological and geochemical properties in Longxi section are highly similar to typical Quaternary eolian deposit in Loess Plateau. Nearly 100 paleosols are recognized in the field, and the grain size are very fine with the median grain size centered at 4～7μm. There is a good agreement of both major and trace element compositions between Longxi deposit and the Quaternary Loess. The REE distribution patterns of Longxi deposit and the Quaternary loess are remarkably similar in shape, with enrichment LREE and fairly flat HREE profiles and clear negative Eu anomaly. The mangnetic minerals in Longxi deposit are mainly magnetite, hematite and maghematite, which are similar to those of the Hipparion Red-Earth and Quaternary Loess. The major difference among them is that the samples from Longxi section contain more hematite. The characteristics of anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) in Longxi deposit is highly consistent with that of Quaternary loess, while values of the major AMS parameters, e.g. anisotropy degree, magnetic foliation and lineation, are significantly lower than those of fluvial and lake deposits. These evidences indicate an eolian origin for the sediment. 2. An investigation of micromammalian fossils was firstly carried out for determining the approximate age of the sequence because of lack of materials for accurate isotope dating. Three fossil assemblages were obtained which indicate a chronological range from the Middle Miocene to Late Miocene. The magnetostratigraphical study suggests that it is a near continuous terrestrial record for the period from 13.23 to 6.23 MaB.P. The obtained chronology is highly consistent with fossils assemblages. This section is the oldest eolian deposit presently known in Loess Plateau. 3. The magnetic susceptibly value is high in paleosols than in surrounded weak-weathered layers, which suggests that it may be a climate index on orbital time scale. While it cannot be used as a proxy to address the long-term, change of climate on tectonic time scale, as content of the magnetic minerals is highly variable in different parts of the section. 4. The appearance of Middle Miocene eolian deposit in the Loess Plateau marks the strengthening of aridification of Central Asia. The high degree of similarity between the geochemical properties of Longxi eolian deposit, Hipparion Red-Earth and Quaternary loess a suggests that a rather similar source provenance. The dust accumulation rate (DAR) of Longxi section, which is widely used as a proxy to document the aridity in source areas in marine and terrestrial record studies, recorded the aridity condition in northwestern China over a period from Middle Miocene to Late Miocene. The DAR of the section shows that the continent aridity remains moderate and relative stable over that period.

黄土高原粉尘堆积源区环境及风化历史初步研究

In this study, we examined the surface features of quartz grains, the quartz oxygen isotopic ratios and the mineralogical compositions of the loess - paleosol - red clay sediments systematically. The surface features of quartz grains do not show significant changes of the dust deposits through the past seven million years. The particles were mainly created in the process of glacial and frost weathering of high mountains. Then the surfaces were altered in some degree by the flood and wind abrasion. The surface features registered all these processes. The assemblages of surface features changed for four times in the past seven million years, the occurrence ages are: 5.0~4.2MaBP, about 3.6MaBP, about 2.6MaBP and about 0.9MaBP, respectively. This may indicate that there were uplift events of the Tibetan Plateau during those times. The oxygen isotopic compositions of quartz in the sediments represent the oxygen isotopic compositions of the initial dusts because of the stable properties of quartz both physically and chemically. The oxygen isotopic compositions of 4~16um quartz changed significantly at about 2.6MaBP, decreasing from about 19.5%o to about 18.5%o. This decrease of quartz oxygen isotopic ratio suggests that the environments of the dust source areas changed at that time, or the range of dust source area changed at that time. The environmental change may result from the structural evolution of the Tibetan Plateau and global cooling at that time. The coarse fractions (>30μm) of the dust deposits were examined using the EDXA device for mineral identification. The quartz content has a decrease trend during 7~2MaBP, then increase rapidly at about 2MaBP. After 2MaBP, quartz content continues to decrease. The Ca-plagioclase content / quartz content ratio increase at about 3.6MaBP. The ratio shows a peak of 3-6 fold values at about 2.5~1.8MaBP, the cause of this is still unknown. The Ca-plagioclase content / quartz content ratio continues to increase after 1 MaBP. The flowing can be regarded as the conclusion remarks of this study: Some of the red clay sediment of the Chinese Loess Plateau (at least Lingtai and Jingchuan red clays) is eolian in origin. The quartz grains from dust deposits throughout the past seven million yeas showed the clues of glacial and frost processes. This indicates that the high mountains of western China reached a certain altitude to favor the glacial and/or frost processes at least seven millions years before. The weathering intensities of the past seven nnillion yeas have a decreasing trend. In about 5~4.5MaBP, the weathering is relatively weak, and the dust supply is relatively low. At about 3.6MaBP and 2.6MaBP, the dust supply increased significantly. The mineralogical composition, the quartz surface feature and the quartz oxygen isotope composition were influenced by the uplift of the Tibetan Plateau. The Plateau may have reached a certain altitude to generate the arid regions of inland China and favor the glacial and frost weathering. And it underwent a phased uplift, which have uplift events at about 3.6MaBP and 2.6MaBP.