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On the basis of bathymetric and seismic data and data from piston cores collected by the Chinese-French marine geology and geophysics investigation of 1996, we discuss the internal architecture and mobility of tidal sand ridges in the East China Sea (ECS). We characterized the sand ridges on the middle to outer shelf of the ECS as tide-dominated sand ridges with southwest dipping beds, indicating that the regional net sediment transport is toward the southwest. As the sand ridges gradually migrate toward the southwest, new sand ridges are continually replacing old ones, and several generations of sand ridges have developed in the study area. High-resolution seismic data, acoustic Doppler current profiler data, and two 14 C-dated piston cores, DGKS9614 and DGKS9612-from a sand ridge swale and crest respectively-show that these sand ridges, which are at water depths of 90-100 m, have been migrating for the last ca. 2-3 ky at least, though these ridges have previously been interpreted as moribund or relict. Sequence stratigraphic interpretation of seismic profiles and core data show that tidal ridges in the ECS evolved from muddier sand ridges formed during the last transgression to sandier shelf sand ridges in response to the shoreline retreat, which resulted in a decrease of riverine muddy sediments and recycling of sandy materials by tidal currents. Most active sand ridge formation occurred during the last transgression, but the present sand ridges on the middle to outer shelf are still being influenced by the modern hydrodynamics. Therefore, these sand ridges on the ECS shelf should be referred to as "quasi-active sand ridges" rather than as moribund or relict sand ridges.

Internal solitary waves (ISWs) can cause strong vertical and horizontal currents and turbulent mixing in the ocean. These processes affect sediment and pollutant transport, acoustic transmissions and man-made structures in the shallow and deep oceans. Previous studies of the role of ISWs in suspending seafloor sediments and forming marine nepheloid layers were mainly conducted in shallow-water environments. In summer 2017, we observed at least four thick (70–140 m) benthic nepheloid layers (BNLs) at water depths between 956 and 1545 m over continental slopes in the northern South China Sea. We found there was a good correlation between the timing of the ISW packet and variations of the deepwater suspended sediment concentration (SSC). At a depth of 956 m, when the ISW arrived, the near-bottom SSC rapidly increased by two orders of magnitude to 0.62 mg/l at 8 m above the bottom. At two much deeper stations, the ISW-induced horizontal velocity reached 59.6–79.3 cm/s, which was one order of magnitude more than the seafloor contour currents velocity. The SSC, 10 m above the sea floor, rapidly increased to 0.10 mg/l (depth of 1545 m) and 1.25 mg/l (depth of 1252 m). In this study, we found that ISWs could suspend much more sediments on deepwater areas than previously thought. Specifically, we estimated that ISWs could induce and suspend 787 Mt/yr of sediment from shelf to deep-sea areas of the northern South China Sea. The total amount of sediment resuspended by shoaling ISWs was 2.7 times that of river-derived sediment reaching the northern South China Sea. This accounted for 6.1% of the global river-discharged sediment (16.4% of that from Asian rivers) transported to the sea.

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