Magnetic Fabric Characteristics of Sand‐Dune Sediments and Its Paleowind Field in the Middle Reaches of Yangtze River

Through the measurement of susceptibility anisotropy and statistical analysis of major axis of the susceptibility ellipsoid of the sand-dune sediments newly found in Jiujiang, Jiangxi, the paper illustrates the variational feature of magnetic fabric parameter in different layers and obtains the feature of paleowind direction and its evolutionary rule. (1) The dominant direction was NW-SE and NNW-SSE during the entire period, but with some variations in direction and intensity in different periods; the most significant change happened in the second sand layer; the direction changed radically from NW-SE to NE-SW, and the sedimentary environment became relatively stable; (2) The second, fifth, and sixth sand layers have greater values of P, F, L and lower q values, indicating that the climate was the coldest when they formed, the winter wind power was the strongest with a stable wind velocity, which corresponds to the development of large-scale tabular oblique bedding in these layers, thicker grain sizes and lower clay contents; (3) In the end of the late Pleistocene, the extensive development of aeolian sand-dunes in the middle reaches of Yangtze River indicates that the climate in that period was the driest and the coldest, and the wind energy was the strongest, similar to the desert-loess climate of the North; (4) The paper shows that hemispherical projection and rose diagram of major axis of AMS is an easy and effective method for the analysis of the variation rule of paleowind direction.