Eolian cannibalism: Reworked loess and fluvial sediment as the main sources of the Chinese Loess Plateau

The loess and paleosol sequences of the Chinese Loess Plateau are composed of Quaternary dust, the origin of which has been the subject of considerable debate. Some recent U-Pb geochronological studies of eolian zircons have proposed the existence of two major wind pathways: from the north and northwest, through the Badan Jaran, Tengger, and Mu Us Deserts during interglacials, and from the west, through the Qaidam Basin during glacials. Others have emphasized the importance of Yellow River sediment supply in the Chinese Loess Plateau sediment budget. However, tracking dust source regions through U-Pb dating in a statistically robust manner is particularly complex given the similar age peaks in the age probability distributions of potential source regions in Central Asia. This paper presents 2410 new U-Pb ages of detrital zircons from wind-eroded strata, Quaternary eolian deposits, and modern river sands in central China in order to increase the robustness and the spatial resolution of zircon age distributions in dust source regions. We then propose a new mixture modeling technique to statistically address the contribution of these different sources to the Chinese Loess Plateau sedimentary budget. Our contribution estimates indicate that eolian supply to the Chinese Loess Plateau is dominated (60%–70%) by reworking of Yellow River sediment. Moreover, evidence of Qaidam Basin–sourced zircons (15%–20%) in both loess (glacial) and paleosol (interglacial) layers corroborates the existence of an erosive wind pathway through the Qaidam Basin during glacials and implies that a substantial portion of the interglacial dust is recycled from older glacial loess. We propose that sediment reworking of Yellow River sediment and older loess deposits by wind on the Chinese Loess Plateau homogenized the eolian zircon populations toward a glacial provenance due to higher (2–20 times) dust accumulation rates during glacials. These findings suggest that the Chinese Loess Plateau has evolved as a more dynamic landform than previous thought, where wind deflation, fluvial input, lateral transport, and accumulation of sediment are equally important. These internal reworking effects would then significantly bias the paleoclimatic interpretations based on eolian dust properties of the Chinese Loess Plateau.

[1]  Peizhen Zhang,et al.  Increased sedimentation rates and grain sizes 2–4 Myr ago due to the influence of climate change on erosion rates , 2001, Nature.

[2]  G. Gehrels,et al.  What happens when n= 1000? Creating large-n geochronological datasets with LA-ICP-MS for geologic investigations , 2014 .

[3]  Shuzhen Peng,et al.  Onset of Asian desertification by 22 Myr ago inferred from loess deposits in China , 2002, Nature.

[4]  A. Yin,et al.  Cenozoic tectonic evolution of the Qaidam basin and its surrounding regions (Part 3): Structural geology, sedimentation, and regional tectonic reconstruction , 2008 .

[5]  Jimin Sun,et al.  Provenance of loess material and formation of loess deposits on the Chinese Loess Plateau , 2002 .

[6]  Pieter Vermeesch,et al.  Quaternary dust source variation across the Chinese Loess Plateau , 2015 .

[7]  K. Pye.  The nature, origin and accumulation of loess , 1995 .

[8]  Jef Vandenberghe,et al.  Grain size of fine-grained windblown sediment: A powerful proxy for process identification , 2013 .

[9]  G. Gehrels.  Introduction to detrital zircon studies of Paleozoic and Triassic strata in western Nevada and northern California , 2000 .

[10]  J. Vandenberghe,et al.  Asian monsoons in a late Eocene greenhouse world , 2014, Nature.

[11]  A. Gillespie,et al.  Linking coarse silt production in Asian sand deserts and Quaternary accretion of the Chinese Loess Plateau , 2014 .

[12]  Gi Young Jeong,et al.  Changes in mineralogy of loess–paleosol sections across the Chinese Loess Plateau , 2011, Quaternary Research.

[13]  K. Verosub,et al.  Mineral magnetic properties of loess/paleosol couplets of the central loess plateau of China over the last 1.2 Myr , 2004 .

[14]  V. Mosbrugger,et al.  Plio-Quaternary stepwise drying of Asia: Evidence from a 3-Ma pollen record from the Chinese Loess Plateau , 2007 .

[15]  B. Maher,et al.  Paleoclimatic Significance of the Mineral Magnetic Record of the Chinese Loess and Paleosols , 1992, Quaternary Research.

[16]  S. C. Porter,et al.  Chinese loess record of monsoon climate during the last glacial–interglacial cycle , 2001 .

[17]  J. Pelletier,et al.  Wind erosion in the Qaidam basin, central Asia: Implications for tectonics, paleoclimate, and the source of the Loess Plateau , 2011 .

[18]  D. Burbank,et al.  Pulsed Miocene range growth in northeastern Tibet: Insights from Xunhua Basin magnetostratigraphy and provenance , 2012 .

[19]  G. Gehrels,et al.  Signatures of mountain building: Detrital zircon U/Pb ages from northeastern Tibet , 2007 .

[20]  Ajay Jasra,et al.  Bayesian Mixture Modelling in Geochronology via Markov Chain Monte Carlo , 2006 .

[21]  M. Clark,et al.  Direct dating of Eocene reverse faulting in northeastern Tibet using Ar-dating of fault clays and low-temperature thermochronometry , 2011 .

[22]  P. Vermeesch.  Multi-sample comparison of detrital age distributions , 2013 .

[23]  J. Bloemendal,et al.  Grain-size and accumulation rate records from Late Cenozoic aeolian sequences in northern China: Implications for variations in the East Asian winter monsoon and westerly atmospheric circulation , 2008 .

[24]  Weijian Zhou,et al.  New eolian red clay sequence on the western Chinese Loess Plateau linked to onset of Asian desertification about 25 Ma ago , 2011 .

[25]  F. Massey.  The Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test for Goodness of Fit , 1951 .

[26]  E. Arnold,et al.  Clay mineralogy of a red clay loess sequence from Lingtai, the Chinese Loess Plateau , 2006 .

[27]  Jimin Sun,et al.  Changes in Sand Content of Loess Deposits along a North–South Transect of the Chinese Loess Plateau and the Implications for Desert Variations , 1999, Quaternary Research.

[28]  J. Pelletier,et al.  From dust to dust: Quaternary wind erosion of the Mu Us Desert and Loess Plateau, China , 2015 .

[29]  Pieter Vermeesch,et al.  Loess Plateau storage of Northeastern Tibetan Plateau-derived Yellow River sediment , 2015, Nature Communications.

[30]  Yan-chou Lu,et al.  Closely-spaced recuperated OSL dating of the last interglacial paleosol in the southeastern margin of the Chinese Loess Plateau , 2011 .

[31]  Yongjin Wang,et al.  Cenozoic environmental evolution of the Qaidam Basin and its implications for the uplift of the Tibetan Plateau and the drying of central Asia , 1999 .

[32]  J. Kutzbach,et al.  Evolution of Asian monsoons and phased uplift of the Himalaya–Tibetan plateau since Late Miocene times , 2001, Nature.

[33]  Jimin Sun,et al.  Spatial and temporal characteristics of dust storms in China and its surrounding regions, 1960-1999 : Relations to source area and climate , 2001 .

[34]  Shuzhen Peng,et al.  Spatial and glacial‐interglacial variations in provenance of the Chinese Loess Plateau , 2012 .

[35]  D. Stockli,et al.  Provenance of the upper Miocene-Pliocene Red Clay deposits of the Chinese loess plateau , 2013 .

[36]  Gaojun Li,et al.  Binary sources of loess on the Chinese Loess Plateau revealed by U–Pb ages of zircon , 2013, Quaternary Research.

[37]  P. Kapp,et al.  Wind as the primary driver of erosion in the Qaidam Basin, China , 2013 .

[38]  T. Lowenstein,et al.  Microbial communities in fluid inclusions and long-term survival in halite , 2011 .

[39]  P. Vermeesch.  On the visualisation of detrital age distributions , 2012 .

[40]  S. Bowring,et al.  An ultrasonic method for isolating nonclay components from clay‐rich material , 2014 .

[41]  H. Renssen,et al.  Penetration of Atlantic westerly winds into Central and East Asia , 2006 .

[42]  Yan-chou Lu,et al.  Quartz OSL chronology and dust accumulation rate changes since the Last Glacial at Weinan on the southeastern Chinese Loess Plateau , 2013 .

[43]  Jie Li,et al.  Palynological evidence for Late Miocene–Pliocene vegetation evolution recorded in the red clay sequence of the central Chinese Loess Plateau and implication for palaeoenvironmental change , 2006 .

[44]  Yan Yan,et al.  Oxygen isotope signatures of quartz from major Asian dust sources: Implications for changes in the provenance of Chinese loess , 2014 .

[45]  Sandy P. Harrison,et al.  Glacial-interglacial changes in dust deposition on the Chinese Loess Plateau , 2003 .

[46]  G. Gehrels,et al.  Detrital zircon geochronology of pre‐Tertiary strata in the Tibetan‐Himalayan orogen , 2011 .

[47]  K. Farley,et al.  Early Cenozoic faulting of the northern Tibetan Plateau margin from apatite (U–Th)/He ages , 2010 .

[48]  P. Mroczek.  Recycled loesses – A micromorphological approach to the determination of local source areas of Weichselian loess , 2013 .

[49]  G. Gehrels,et al.  Detrital-zircon geochronology of the northeastern Tibetan plateau , 2003 .

[50]  Zhibao Dong,et al.  Modern dust storms in China: an overview , 2004 .

[51]  Xingmin Meng,et al.  Provenance, transport and characteristics of modern aeolian dust in western Gansu Province, China, and interpretation of the Quaternary loess record , 1998 .

[52]  Pieter Vermeesch,et al.  Genetic linkage between the Yellow River, the Mu Us desert and the Chinese Loess Plateau , 2013 .

[53]  Z. An,et al.  Grain size of loess；palaeosol and Red Clay deposits on the Chinese Loess Plateau: Significance for understanding pedogenic alteration and palaeomonsoon evolution , 2006 .

[54]  T. Andersen.  Detrital zircons as tracers of sedimentary provenance: Limiting conditions from statistics and numerical simulation , 2005 .

[55]  J. Kramers,et al.  Approximation of terrestrial lead isotope evolution by a two-stage model , 1975 .

[56]  Van Loon.  Lost loesses [rapid communication] , 2006 .

[57]  P. Tapponnier,et al.  Northeastward growth of the Tibet plateau deduced from balanced reconstruction of two depositional areas: The Qaidam and Hexi Corridor basins, China , 1998 .

[58]  T. Pettke,et al.  Increasing Nd isotopic ratio of Asian dust indicates progressive uplift of the north Tibetan Plateau since the middle Miocene , 2011 .

[59]  R. Clowes,et al.  The big picture: A lithospheric cross section of the North American continent , 2011 .

[60]  G. Gehrels,et al.  U-Pb zircon ages as a sediment mixing tracer in the Nepal Himalaya , 2005 .

[61]  J. King,et al.  Magnetic parameter variations in the Chaona loess/paleosol sequences in the central Chinese Loess Plateau, and their significance for the middle Pleistocene climate transition , 2014, Quaternary Research.

[62]  Dirk P. Kroese,et al.  Kernel density estimation via diffusion , 2010, 1011.2602.

[63]  J. Nie,et al.  Automated SEM-EDS heavy mineral analysis reveals no provenance shift between glacial loess and interglacial paleosol on the Chinese Loess Plateau , 2014 .

[64]  J. Toggweiler,et al.  Ocean circulation in a warming climate , 2008, Nature.

[65]  S. Graham,et al.  Detrital zircon provenance from three turbidite depocenters of the Middle-Upper Triassic Songpan-Ganzi complex, central China: Record of collisional tectonics, erosional exhumation, and sediment production , 2010 .

[66]  Thomas Stevens,et al.  Optically stimulated luminescence dating as a tool for calculating sedimentation rates in Chinese loess: comparisons with grain‐size records , 2009 .

[67]  Fei Wang,et al.  Magnetostratigraphy and palaeoenvironmental records for a Late Cenozoic sedimentary sequence from Lanzhou, Northeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau , 2011 .

[68]  G. Roe.  On the interpretation of Chinese loess as a paleoclimate indicator , 2009, Quaternary Research.

[69]  P. Vermeesch.  How many grains are needed for a provenance study , 2004 .

[70]  Huayu Lu,et al.  Assessing the provenance of loess and desert sediments in northern China using U-Pb dating and morphology of detrital zircons , 2010 .

[71]  A. Zhisheng,et al.  Correlation between climate events in the North Atlantic and China during the last glaciation , 1995, Nature.

[72]  J. Mason,et al.  Mechanisms of dust emission from Pleistocene loess deposits, Nebraska, USA , 2013 .

[73]  Jianhui Liu,et al.  Rapid fluvial incision along the Yellow River during headward basin integration , 2010 .

[74]  X. Fang,et al.  Tibet forcing Quaternary stepwise enhancement of westerly jet and central Asian aridification: Carbonate isotope records from deep drilling in the Qaidam salt playa, NE Tibet , 2014 .

[75]  G. Kukla,et al.  The long-term paleomonsoon variation recorded by the loess-paleosol sequence in Central China , 1990 .

[76]  K. Gallagher,et al.  New SHRIMP zircon ages from tuffs within the British Palaeozoic stratotypes , 2012 .

[77]  Lin Ding,et al.  Qaidam Basin and northern Tibetan Plateau as dust sources for the Chinese Loess Plateau and paleoclimatic implications , 2011 .

[78]  Pieter Vermeesch,et al.  Making geological sense of 'Big Data' in sedimentary provenance analysis , 2015 .

[79]  R. Martín-García,et al.  Mudflat/distal fan and shallow lake sedimentation (upper Vallesian-Turolian) in the Tianshui Basin, Central China: Evidence against the late Miocene eolian loess , 2009 .

[80]  M. Sambridge,et al.  Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling methods to determine optimal models, model resolution and model choice for Earth Science problems , 2009 .