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The Yangtze River Deposition in Southern Yellow Sea during Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage 3 and its Implications for Sea-Level Changes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Zhuyou Sun ,
Gang Li  and
Yong Yin
Zhuyou Sun
Affiliation:
MOE Key Laboratory of Coastal and Island Development, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China
Gang Li*
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Marginal Sea Geology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guang Zhou 510300, China
Yong Yin
Affiliation:
MOE Key Laboratory of Coastal and Island Development, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail address:gangli@scsio.ac.cn (G. Li).
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Abstract

The depositional history of the lower Yangtze River and sea-level changes during Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 was established using three long drill cores from the northern Yangtze deltaic plain and southern Yellow Sea by using sedimentary analysis and AMS 14C dates. Voluminous channel deposits of the lower Yangtze River in MIS 3 were found from the northern deltaic plain and offshore area, with a thickness of over 30 m. The thick channel deposits are characterized by massive medium-to-fine sand deposits with sporadic tidal influence. During MIS 3, the Yangtze River appears to have mainly migrated between the modern river mouth and middle Jiangsu coastal plain, and likely built a delta complex in the field of Yangtze Sand Shoal in northern East China Sea. A large sediment supply and rapid sea-level variations promoted rapid progradation of the delta onto the flat shelf. The highest sea levels during MIS 3 are estimated to have reached 25 ± 5 m below the present sea level.

Keywords

Yangtze RiverChannel depositsMarine Oxygen Isotope Stage 3Sea level
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 83 , Issue 1 , January 2015 , pp. 204 - 215
Copyright
University of Washington

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