Comment on “Mudflat/distal fan and shallow lake sedimentation (upper Vallesian–Turolian) in the Tianshui Basin, Central China: Evidence against the late Miocene eolian loess” by A.M. Alonso-Zarza, Z. Zhao, C.H. Song, J.J. Li, J. Zhang, A. Martín-Pérez, R. Martín-García, X.X. Wang, Y. Zhang and M.H. Zhang [Sedimentary Geology 222 (2009) 42–51]

Identifying eolian dust in the geological record

“…This mudflat model involves alluvial, fluvial, lacustrine and eolian deposits and thereby provides an explanation for the co-occurrence of lacustrine siltstones, fluvial sandstones, and loess-like siltstones in numerous locations (e.g. 2010;Flynn et al, 2011;Guo et al, 2010;Liu et al, 2019). Yet massive terrestrial siltstones are commonly interpreted as loessites which implies deposition almost exclusively by wind.…”

Loss of loess in the geological record due to poor preservation

“…Alonso-Zarza, A. M., Zhao, Z., Song, C. H., Li, J. J., Zhang, J., Martín-Pérez, A., Martín-García, R., Wang, X. X., Zhang, Y., & Zhang, M. H. (2009). Mudflat/distal fan and shallow lake sedimentation (upper Vallesian-Turolian) in the Tianshui Basin, Central China: Evidence against the late Miocene eolian loess.…”

“…Some siltstones have been interpreted as loessites, but often based on ambiguous compositional and textural criteria that are indistinguishable from fluvio‐lacustrine deposits resulting in debates on their depositional origin (Meijer et al, 2020). Hence, some well‐known examples of loessites such as the Neogene Red Clay in China (An et al, 1999, 2001; Ding et al, 1998; Guo et al, 2002, 2010; Sun et al, 1998) and the Triassic siltstones in northwestern Europe (Jefferson et al, 2002; Mao et al, 2021; Wilkins et al, 2018) have been alternatively interpreted as distal fluvio‐lacustrine mudflats, possibly with additional contributions of aeolian dust (Alonso‐Zarza et al, 2009, 2010; Li et al, 2019; Meijer et al, 2020; Peng et al, 2012; Talbot et al, 1994). This is supported by recent developments in provenance studies showing that locally eroding bedrock is the main source for the Chinese Red Clay, in contrast to the Quaternary loess which is more distally sourced (Bohm et al, 2022; Liu et al, 2019; Nie et al, 2014; Shang et al, 2016; Zhang et al, 2018).…”

华家岭山地中新世风成红土堆积与西部黄土高原地貌演化

“…然而, 与QA-I同类型的沉积序列分布于秦岭南坡(NL-VI, 属 长江流域) [8] 、秦岭山顶(ML-V) [5] 、秦安地区的基岩高 地 [4,6,7] 及华家岭山顶(本文的NL-VII)上, 从根本上了 排除了上述解释 [30] 的可能, 因为泥坪/远端扇沉积不 能堆积在它们的物源山地上. 由于对研究区沉积物的 分布、接触关系、沉积特征和地层年代等研究的不足, 或许亦因第三纪风尘堆积和第四纪黄土在特征上的差 异, 该模式 [30] [29,35] . 迄今在黄土高原以外的青藏高原东北缘 [31] 和 准格尔盆地 [36] (2) 研究结果进一步揭示出中新世风尘红土堆 积广泛分布的特征, 也进一步证实了它们的成因及 其对亚洲内陆型干旱和季风主控型环境的指示意义 [5] .…”