A major change in precipitation gradient on the Chinese Loess Plateau at the Pliocene-Quaternary boundary

Peng, Wei; Nie, Junsheng; Wang, Zhao; Qiang, Xiaoke; Garzanti, Eduardo; Pfaff, Katharina; Song, Yougui; Stevens, Thomas

doi:10.1016/j.jseaes.2017.10.031

Cited by 19 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 31 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…They found that late Miocene‐Pliocene rainfall gradient on the CLP was more meridional. This is quite different to the southeast‐northwest rainfall gradient during the Quaternary (Peng et al, ). The meridional rainfall gradient during late Pliocene implies that a westward moisture transport from the Pacific Ocean to the western part of the CLP would be difficult (Peng et al, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 60%

“…This is quite different to the southeast‐northwest rainfall gradient during the Quaternary (Peng et al, ). The meridional rainfall gradient during late Pliocene implies that a westward moisture transport from the Pacific Ocean to the western part of the CLP would be difficult (Peng et al, ). Thus, all these tectonic reorganization and climatic shifts would cause a subtle increase in the MAP at NLS during late Pliocene.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 60%

“…This means that the increase in precipitation gradient between the western and central CLP is mainly attributed to the increase in precipitation at Chaona. We argue that the precipitation, supplied by an intensified EASM during the Pliocene Warm Period, would be difficult to transport into the western CLP, due to the barrier effect of high mountains (i.e., the Liupan Shan and Maxian Shan; Figure ) and a major change in precipitation gradient on the CLP after 2.7 Ma (Peng et al, ). Both the geomorphological analysis and apatite fission track thermochronology results reveal that the Liupan Shan and Maxian Shan have reached an extremely high altitude at ~8 and 6.9 Ma in response to late Miocene tectonic uplift of the NE Tibetan Plateau (Li et al, ; Zheng et al, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The barrier effect of these high mountains would block moisture from penetrating into the western CLP. In addition, Peng et al () compared the spatial differences in heavy mineral assemblages between pre‐Quaternary Red Clay sequences and Quaternary loess deposits from the central CLP. They found that late Miocene‐Pliocene rainfall gradient on the CLP was more meridional.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, these previous studies did not consider the red clay sections from the northeastern part of the CLP. Recently, Peng et al () compared the spatial differences in heavy mineral assemblages between pre‐Quaternary Red Clay sequences and Quaternary loess deposits from the central CLP. They argued that the rainfall gradient was more meridional during the late Miocene‐Pliocene (Peng et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Late Pliocene Monsoonal Rainfall Gradients in Western China Recorded by the Eolian Deposits From the Linxia Basin, NE Tibetan Plateau

Zan

Fang

et al. 2018

JGR Atmospheres

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Loess and red clay sediments from the Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP) contain a wealth of information about variations in the Asian monsoon and the aridification history of the Asian interior. However, relatively little is known about late Pliocene palaeoenvironmental evolution and the variations in the gradients of monsoonal rainfall in the western part of the CLP, due to the poor exposure of pre-Quaternary eolian deposits and uncertainties in the interpretation of paleoclimatic proxies in most parts of the region. To address these issues, we conducted a detailed rock magnetic investigation of newly drilled eolian sequences (spanning 3.7-2.4 Ma) from the Linxia Basin, NE Tibetan Plateau. Our results demonstrate that pedogenically formed fine magnetic grains are responsible for the magnetic enhancement of loess-red clay sediments from the basin. Spatially, a clear decrease in magnetic susceptibility and its frequency dependence is observed between the central and western CLP, indicating that the East Asian summer monsoon already exerted a major influence on the amount and distribution of late Pliocene rainfall in the Linxia Basin. After evaluating the validity of magneto-climofunctions, we attempt to reconstruct late Pliocene-early Pleistocene monsoonal precipitation in the NE margin of the Tibetan Plateau. The results demonstrate that the difference in late Pliocene monsoonal rainfall between the study area and Chaona in the central CLP was about 300-400 mm. This value is higher than that of the present day, indicating a steepened gradient in monsoonal rainfall between the central and western CLP during the late Pliocene.Recent rock magnetic investigations further confirmed that pedogenically formed fine magnetic grains were also responsible for the magnetic enhancement of Pliocene red clay deposits from the central CLP (Liu et al., 2003;Nie et al., 2007;. Moreover, the spatial variations in magnetic susceptibility values of the red clay deposits exhibit similar patterns to the overlying loess-paleosol sediments (Xiong et al., 2002), that is, an evident decrease from southeast to the northwest. Therefore, several routine rock magnetic parameters or interparametric ratios for the red clay deposits from the central CLP have been used successfully to reconstruct paleorainfall from modern soil-rainfall calibrations (Nie et al., 2008;. However, these previous studies did not consider the red clay sections from the northeastern part of the CLP. Recently, Peng et al. (2018) compared the spatial differences in heavy mineral assemblages between pre-Quaternary Red Clay sequences and Quaternary loess deposits from the central ZAN ET AL.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 60%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 60%