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Magnetic parameter variations in the Chaona loess/paleosol sequences in the central Chinese Loess Plateau, and their significance for the middle Pleistocene climate transition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Yougui Song ,
Xiaomin Fang ,
John W. King ,
Jijun Li ,
Ishikawa Naoto  and
Zhisheng An
Yougui Song*
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an 710075, China Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems, Ministry of Education of China, Lanzhou 730000, China
Xiaomin Fang
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems, Ministry of Education of China, Lanzhou 730000, China Key Laboratory of Continental Collision and Plateau Uplift, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China
John W. King
Affiliation:
Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, RI 02882, USA
Jijun Li
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems, Ministry of Education of China, Lanzhou 730000, China
Ishikawa Naoto
Affiliation:
Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan
Zhisheng An
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an 710075, China
*
*Corresponding author at: State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an 710075, China. E-mail addresses:ygsong@loess.llqg.ac.cnsyg@ieecas.cn (Y. Song).
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Abstract

A high-resolution rock magnetic investigation was performed on the Chaona Quaternary loess/paleosol sequences in the Central Chinese Loess Plateau. Based on a newly developed independent unturned time scale and magnetic records, we reconstructed the history of the East Asia monsoons during the last 3 Ma and explored the middle Pleistocene climate transition (MPT). Rock magnetic results show that the loess layers are characterized by relatively high coercivity and remanent coercivity, lower magnetic susceptibility (MS), and that the paleosol layers are characterized by relatively high MS, saturation magnetization and remanent saturation magnetization. Spectrum analyses indicate that there are various periods in addition to orbital periodicities. According to the onset and stable appearance of 100 kyr period, we consider that the MPT recorded in this section began at ~ 1.26 Ma and was completed by ~ 0.53 Ma, which differs from previous investigations based on orbitally tuned time scales. The forcing mechanism for the MPT was more complicated than just the orbital forcing. We conclude that the rapid uplift of the Tibetan Plateau may have played an important role in the shift of periodicities during the middle Pleistocene.

Keywords

Rock magnetismLoess–paleosol sequenceEast Asian monsoon historyMiddle-Pleistocene climatic transition
Type
Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 81 , Issue 3 , May 2014 , pp. 433 - 444
Copyright
University of Washington

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