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Changes in Sand Content of Loess Deposits along a North–South Transect of the Chinese Loess Plateau and the Implications for Desert Variations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Zhongli Ding ,
Jimin Sun ,
Nat W. Rutter ,
Dean Rokosh  and
Tungsheng Liu
Zhongli Ding
Affiliation:
Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China
Jimin Sun
Affiliation:
Xian State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Xian, 710054, China
Nat W. Rutter
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2E3, Canada
Dean Rokosh
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2E3, Canada
Tungsheng Liu
Affiliation:
Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China
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Abstract

Geological records have shown that the deserts east of the Helan Mountains in northern China were covered by grass during the Holocene Optimum, whereas during marine oxygen isotope stages 2 and 4 distribution of the deserts was almost the same as at present. The wide advance–retreat cycles of the deserts may have exerted an important control on grain-size changes in the loess of the Loess Plateau by altering the distance between the source and the accumulation zone of the loess. This challenges the widely accepted model that winter monsoon winds were the sole factor responsible for spatial and temporal changes in loess texture. To observe spatial changes in sedimentological characteristics of loess during the last glacial–interglacial cycle, the texture of loess was measured along a north–south transect of the Loess Plateau. This transect consists of nine loess sections, starting at Yulin in the transitional region between the Loess Plateau and the Mu Us Desert and ending at Weinan in the southernmost part of the Loess Plateau. Southward changes in sand (>63 μm) content along the transect suggest that variations in desert extent have indeed played a significant role in loess grain-size distributions, particularly in the northern part of the Loess Plateau. It is proposed that sand content (>63 μm%) of loess in the loess–desert transitional zone may be used as a proxy indicator for proximity to the desert margin.

Keywords

Chinaloessmonsoon climateLoess PlateauMu Us Desert
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 52 , Issue 1 , July 1999 , pp. 56 - 62
Copyright
University of Washington

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