Provenance, transport and characteristics of modern aeolian dust in western Gansu Province, China, and interpretation of the Quaternary loess record

Derbyshire, Edward; Meng, Xingmin; Kemp, Richard I.

doi:10.1006/jare.1997.0369

Cited by 298 publications

(166 citation statements)

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“…The particles are then mobilized and transported during dust storms, especially in spring (Kurosaki and Mikami, 2003;Roe, 2009;Sun et al, 2001). Observations on contemporary dust falls indicate that the grain size of the dust generally decreases with decreasing wind strength and increasing distance from the dust source areas (Derbyshire et al, 1998;Sun et al, 2003;Yang and Ding, 2008). This is in line with grain-size analysis results of the loess deposits, which indicate that the bulk loess deposits are progressively finer-grained with increasing distance southeastwards across the CLP -changing from sandy loess to silty loess and then to clayey loess (Liu, 1985;Nugteren and Vandenberghe, 2004).…”

Section: New Evidence For the Aridification Of Ne China During The Plmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-term Pleistocene aridification and possible linkage to high-latitude forcing: New evidence from grain size and magnetic susceptibility proxies from loess-paleosol record in northeastern China

Zeng

et al. 2017

CATENA

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Loess deposits are regarded as good indicators of the inception and development of arid and semi-arid climate in central Asia and northern China during the late Cenozoic. In northeastern China extensive loess deposits are found surrounding the Horqin and Otindag sand fields, and they have great potential for reconstructing the long-term aridification history of the region. However, these loess deposits are currently poorly understood.Here, we present a high-resolution magnetic susceptibility (MS) and grain-size record spanning the last 1.0 Ma from a 36.6-m-thick loess-paleosol sequence at Niuyangzigou site (NYZG) in NE China. The grain-size record reveals a long-term drying trend in NE China since ca. 1.0 Ma, punctuated by two significant abrupt drying events at~0.65 Ma and~0.3 Ma. These results demonstrate a process of stepwise intensification of drying in NE China over the past 1 Ma, and lend support to the hypothesis that global ice volume/temperature changes were the major driver of the long-term aridification of Asian dust source areas. However, unlike the widely studied loess deposits on the central Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP), the MS record in paleosol units S1, S2 and S4 from the NYZG site do not show evidence of enhanced monsoon precipitation resulting from decreased global ice volume and the prolonged episodes of interglaciation after the Mid-Pleistocene Transition evident in the ice volume record. We hypothesize that this may be due to differences in the climatic sensitivity of the MS of Chinese loess deposits on a regional scale, rather than to in regional differences in monsoon intensity.

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Section: New Evidence For the Aridification Of Ne China During The Plmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-term Pleistocene aridification and possible linkage to high-latitude forcing: New evidence from grain size and magnetic susceptibility proxies from loess-paleosol record in northeastern China

Zeng

et al. 2017

CATENA

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“…Ca was determined to be mostly from carbonate minerals including calcite (CaCO 3 ) and dolomite (CaMg(CO 3 ) 2 ). The fraction of carbonate in Asian dust has been reported to range from 1-12% by mass (Andronova et al, 1993;Derbyshire et al, 1998;Honda et al, 2004;Nishikawa et al, 2000 (Bruynseels and Van Grieken, 1983).…”

Section: Mineral Dust Mass Spectramentioning

confidence: 99%

Direct observations of the atmospheric processing of Asian mineral dust

et al. 2007

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Abstract. The accumulation of secondary acids and ammonium on individual mineral dust particles during ACEAsia has been measured with an online single-particle mass spectrometer, the ATOFMS. Changes in the amounts of sulphate, nitrate, and chloride mixed with dust particles correlate with air masses from different source regions. The uptake of secondary acids depended on the individual dust particle mineralogy; high amounts of nitrate accumulated on calcium-rich dust while high amounts of sulphate accumulated on aluminosilicate-rich dust. Oxidation of S(IV) to S(VI) by iron in the aluminosilicate dust is a possible explanation for this enrichment of sulphate, which has important consequences for the fertilization of remote oceans by soluble iron. This study shows the segregation of sulphate from nitrate and chloride in individual aged dust particles for the first time. A transport and aging timeline provides an explanation for the observed segregation. Our data suggests that sulphate became mixed with the dust first. This implies that the transport pathway is more important than the reaction kinetics in determining which species accumulate on mineral dust. Early in the study, dust particles in volcanically influenced air masses were mixed predominately with sulphate. Dust mixed with chloride then dominated over sulphate and nitrate when a major dust front reached the R. V. Ronald Brown. We hypothesize that the rapid increase in chloride on dust was due to mixing with HCl(g) released from acidified sea salt particles induced by heterogeneous reaction with volcanic SO 2 (g), prior to the arrival of the dust front. The amount of ammonium mixed with dust correlated strongly with the total amount of secondary acid reaction products in the dust. Submicron dust and ammonium sulphate were internally mixed, contrary to frequent reports that they exist as external mixtures. The size distribution of the mixing Correspondence to: K. Prather (kprather@ucsd.edu) state of dust with these secondary species validates previous mechanisms of the atmospheric processing of dust and generally agrees with simulated aerosol chemistry from the STEM-2K3 model. This series of novel results has important implications for improving the treatment of dust in global chemistry models and highlights a number of key processes that merit further investigation through laboratory and field studies.

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“…Investigations on paleoclimate records of eolian deposits have established many physical, chemical and biological proxy indexes reflecting the East Asian monsoon evolution, and have provided significant evidence for better understanding the East Asian monsoon evolution and its relationship with that the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau provided loess-sized materials for the Chinese Loess Plateau (Derbyshire et al, 1998;Fang et al, 2004). The uncertainty of the provenance of eolian deposits prevents a further insight into the formation of the Chinese Loess Plateau and the significance of paleoclimatic proxies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sr-Nd isotopic characteristics of eolian deposits in the Erdos Desert and Chinese Loess Plateau: Implications for their provenances

et al. 2008

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Material sources of the northern deserts and the Loess Plateau in China are always one of the critical focuses in Quaternary and paleoclimate fields. In this paper, the method of Sr-Nd isotope geochemistry is applied to explore the relationship in material source between the Erdos desert and Chinese Loess Plateau. The ε Nd (0) value of the <75 µm silicate fraction between -11.8 and -17.2 is more positive in the west than in the east, and its 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratio varies from 0.719218 to 0.714824 without similar characteristics in the Erdos desert. In addition, there are Sr-Nd isotopic differences between different grain-size fractions of eolian sand in the Erdos desert. The coarse-grained fractions mainly originated from local parent rock weathering, but the fine-grained fractions were probably affected by the input of foreign materials. Geographical distribution of Sr-Nd isotopes (especially Nd isotopes) of <75 µm silicate fractions indicates that the input of foreign materials into the Erdos desert decreases gradually from its west to east. The ε Nd (0) (0) values of eolian silicate fractions in the western-central Loess Plateau mostly fall in a very narrow range of -9~-11.5, suggesting a uniform source region. However, there is a large Sr isotope variation resulting from different pretreating methods employed by researchers. The ε Nd (0) and 87 Sr/ 86 Sr values of eolian silicate fractions in the eastern Loess Plateau both change markedly. The differences in Sr-Nd isotopes of eolian silicate fractions between the eastern and western-central Loess Plateau indicate that there are different sources for eolian silicate materials in the two sub-areas. Sr-Nd isotopes, especially Nd isotopes of the <75 µm silicate fractions in the Erdos desert are clearly different from those of eolian silicate fractions in the western-central part, but roughly close to those of eolian silicate fractions in the eastern part of the Chinese Loess Plateau, which shows that the Erdos desert was perhaps a main source for the eastern Loess Plateau but not for the western-central Loess Plateau.

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Provenance, transport and characteristics of modern aeolian dust in western Gansu Province, China, and interpretation of the Quaternary loess record

Cited by 298 publications

References 0 publications

Long-term Pleistocene aridification and possible linkage to high-latitude forcing: New evidence from grain size and magnetic susceptibility proxies from loess-paleosol record in northeastern China

Long-term Pleistocene aridification and possible linkage to high-latitude forcing: New evidence from grain size and magnetic susceptibility proxies from loess-paleosol record in northeastern China

Direct observations of the atmospheric processing of Asian mineral dust

Sr-Nd isotopic characteristics of eolian deposits in the Erdos Desert and Chinese Loess Plateau: Implications for their provenances

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