Pleistocene climates in China dated by magnetic susceptibility

The magnetic susceptibility of loess and interbedded soils in central China varies with the degree of pedogenesis and serves as a proxy measure of climate. The concentration of magnetic minerals in the sediment is inversely proportional to sedimentation rates throughout the Brunhes epoch. Susceptibility measurements combined with the reversal stratigraphy provide a time scale that is independent of astronomic chronology. On this scale, the susceptibility record closely parallels the oxygen-isotope fluctuations in deep-sea sediments, suggesting a close interdependence of the Chinese dust falls, the volume of land-based ice, and global climate.