Sedimentary environmental evolution for the past 30 ka of the northern continental slope of the South China Sea

LI Pingyuan; LU Jianfei; XIA Zhen; GAN Huayang; NI Yugen; WANG Junzhu; CHANG Xiaohong

doi:10.16562/j.cnki.0256-1492.2020052501

2020 Vol. 40, No. 6

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Article navigation > Marine Geology & Quaternary Geology > 2020 > 40(6): 14-21

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LI Pingyuan, LU Jianfei, XIA Zhen, GAN Huayang, NI Yugen, WANG Junzhu, CHANG Xiaohong. Sedimentary environmental evolution for the past 30 ka of the northern continental slope of the South China Sea[J]. Marine Geology & Quaternary Geology, 2020, 40(6): 14-21. doi: 10.16562/j.cnki.0256-1492.2020052501

Citation:

LI Pingyuan, LU Jianfei, XIA Zhen, GAN Huayang, NI Yugen, WANG Junzhu, CHANG Xiaohong. Sedimentary environmental evolution for the past 30 ka of the northern continental slope of the South China Sea[J]. Marine Geology & Quaternary Geology, 2020, 40(6): 14-21. doi: 10.16562/j.cnki.0256-1492.2020052501

Sedimentary environmental evolution for the past 30 ka of the northern continental slope of the South China Sea

1.
Guangzhou Marine Geological Survey, Ministry of Natural Resources, P. R. China, Guangzhou 510760, China
2.
Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory, Guangzhou 511458, China
3.
Academy of South China Sea Marine Geological Science, China Geological Survey, Sanya 572024, China

Received Date: 25 May 2020

Revised Date: 29 July 2020

Publish Date: 25 December 2020

Abstract

Abstract

The South China Sea is the largest marginal sea in the Western Pacific, which receives massive sediments from the surrounding landmasses. Terrestrial sediments are transported into the deep basin via a complex ocean current system, with the continental slope as a key component of the source-to-sink process. However, past changes in sedimentary environment of the continental slope remain rarely understood, because of the drastic variations in water depth and complicated current systems in addition to sea level changes induced by glacial-interglacial cycles and the changes in trade wind. In this research, two gravity cores collected from the northern South China Sea are used to study the sedimentary environmental evolution of the continental slope. One is located in the middle of the slope, and the other at the lower part of the slope. According to the results of element geochemistry, it is revealed that: 1) the sea level change is the key factor which controls the changes in the ratio of terrigenous to biogenic components of the sediments; 2) a carbonate dilution event is found related to the intensification of the East Asian Summer Monsoon during the early Holocene from 11.5 to 8.5 kaBP.
- sedimentary environment /
- glacial- interglacial periods /
- sea level changes /
- carbonate-dilution event /
- the northern continental slope of the South China Sea

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References

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