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Geochemical and grain-size evidence for the provenance of loess deposits in the Central Shandong Mountains region, northern China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Shuzhen Peng ,
Qingzhen Hao ,
Luo Wang ,
Min Ding ,
Wei Zhang ,
Yanan Wang  and
Zhengtang Guo
Shuzhen Peng
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Tourism and Resources Environment in Universities of Shandong, Taishan University, Taian 271021, China Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
Qingzhen Hao*
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
Luo Wang
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
Min Ding
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Tourism and Resources Environment in Universities of Shandong, Taishan University, Taian 271021, China
Wei Zhang
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Tourism and Resources Environment in Universities of Shandong, Taishan University, Taian 271021, China Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
Yanan Wang
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Tourism and Resources Environment in Universities of Shandong, Taishan University, Taian 271021, China
Zhengtang Guo
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
*
⁎Corresponding author. Fax: +86 10 62010846. E-mail address:haoqz@mail.iggcas.ac.cn (Q. Hao).
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Abstract

Widespread loess deposits in the Central Shandong Mountains yield valuable paleoclimatic records for this currently semi-humid monsoonal region of northern China. The grain-size distribution and major element composition for bulk samples and two grain-size fractions (< 20 and 20–63 μm) for the loess in the Central Shandong Mountains were compared with loess from the Chinese Loess Plateau and sediment from the Yellow River to help determine its provenance. The presence of a significant percentage of medium- and coarse-silt, and the difference in relatively immobile major element ratios of TiO2/Al2O3 and K2O/Al2O3 for the < 20 and 20–63 μm fractions, suggests that sediment that forms the loess deposits in the Central Shandong Mountains was not blown directly from the northern deserts of China as is the case for the loess deposits of the Chinese Loess Plateau. Rather, this suggests that sediments exposed during glacial times on the North China fluvial plain, including the floodplain of the Yellow River, were the major dust source for the loess in the Central Shangong Mountains. In addition, the wide distribution of perimontane loess in the Central Shandong Mountains region indicates the occurrence of strengthened local aridification during glacial times since the middle Pleistocene.

Keywords

Loess ProvenanceCentral Shandong MountainsChinese Loess PlateauGeochemistryGrain-size
Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 85 , Issue 2 , March 2016 , pp. 290 - 298
Copyright
University of Washington

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