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The Okinawa Trough is a natural laboratory for the study of later Quaternary land-ocean interaction and paleoenvironmental changes. In this study we reconstruct the evolution of clay mineral assemblages in Core DGKS9604 retrieved from the central Okinawa Trough. Illite dominates the clay mineral compositions, with average contents above 60%. Clay mineral evolution since 28 ka is closely related to changes in sediment provenance and paleoenvironment. Sea level rise and the strength of the Kuroshio Current control the dispersal and deposition of clays on the East China Sea shelf and in the Okinawa Trough, and thus, determine the clay mineral compositions in the core sediments. During the late last glacial period (28.0-14.0 ka), the paleo-Changjiang River mouth was situated at the shelf edge close to the central Okinawa Trough and thus, together with the outer shelf, supplied large volumes of terrigenous sediments directly into the trough. From 14.0 to 8.4 ka influence from the Changjiang decreased while the mid-outer shelf of the East China Sea became the dominant sediment source to the central Okinawa Trough as sea level rose and the Changjiang river mouth migrated west. Strong sediment reworking and erosion at the shelf edge at 15-13 ka significantly increased the lateral transport of fine-grained shelf sediments to the central Okinawa Trough.Since ca. 8.4 ka clays from Taiwan have dominated the sediment flux to the site, coinciding with the re-entry of the Kuroshio Current into the trough. The increasing influence of the Changjiang-sourced sediments since 1.5 ka was probably related to the weakening of the Kuroshio Current and/or a higher river flux.

The late Quaternary paleoceanography and paleoenvironment in the Okinawa Trough, East China Sea, have been well reconstructed over the last decade, while in contrast the provenance of terrigenous sediments that have accumulated there remains enigmatic. In this study, rare earth elements (REE) were used to investigate provenance changes in sediments from Core DGKS9604, taken from the middle Okinawa Trough. Discrimination plots based on REE fractionation parameters suggest that the cored sediments have variable provenances over the last 30 ka, with the lower part (ca. 31-8.2 ka) ultimately originating mostly from the Changjiang (Yangtze River) and the upper part (7.1-0 ka) primarily from Taiwan. During the Last Glacial Maximum and early deglacial period, sea level was low and the main stream of the Kuroshio Current was deflected to the east of the Ryukyu Islands. As a result the Changjiang-derived sediments might have dominated sedimentation of the middle Okinawa Trough. However, since about 7 ka the main stream of the Kuroshio Current strengthened in the area of the trough, as sea level approximated the modern position. This caused near-bottom transport of fine-grained sediments from the continental margin to the trough to become weak and instead, Taiwan-derived terrigenous sediments dominated in the middle trough. The changing provenances of terrigenous sediments into the middle Okinawa Trough are closely related to the evolution of oceanic circulation and sea level in the East China Sea. Two tephra layers in the core have distinct REE compositions and correlate well with two volcanic eruptions at 7.6 and 25.8 ka in southern Japan.

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