Applying end-member modeling to extricate the sedimentary environment of yardang strata in the Dunhuang Yardang National Geopark, northwestern China

Liang, Xiaolei; Niu, Qinghe; Qu, Jianjun; Liu, Bing; Liu, Benli; Zhai, Xiaoyan; Niu, Baicheng

doi:10.1016/j.catena.2019.04.029

Cited by 23 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…In other words, both are similar sedimentary environmental types. This finding is consistent with a previous study on Dunhuang yardang sedimentary environment identification conducted by the authors of this study (Liang et al, 2019).…”

Section: Controlling Factors Of Yardang Sediment Chromaticitysupporting

confidence: 94%

“…Accordingly, clay and sand components did not directly affect changes in sediment brightness, and they are likely to have a strong linear correlation to brightness values through the sedimentary environmental relationship. In our previous study, we determined that the Dunhuang yardang sedimentary environment could be divided into lacustrine, aeolian, and alluvial sedimentary environments, where their representative grain-size components were 3-60 μm, 150-300 μm, and 200-550 μm, respectively (Liang et al, 2019). Therefore, clay and sand content in yardang sediment can be used as effective proxy indicators for sedimentary environmental changes, while differences between aeolian and hydrological environments will directly affect the amount of organic matter in sediment, which in turn will influence brightness values.…”

Section: Control Factor Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The above results are consistent with our previous quantitative reconstruction of a yardang sedimentary environment based on endmember modeling. On the whole, yardang strata were dominated by the lake environment, and aeolian and hydrogenic material was deposited at an alternating sequence (Liang et al, 2019). To further demonstrate the utility of chromaticity proxies as indicators of sedimentary environments, we conducted an in-depth analysis of 3.…”

Section: Extraction Of the Characteristic Colormentioning

confidence: 99%

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Color changes in yardang strata sediment in the Dunhuang Yardang National Geopark, Northwest China: Controlling factors and significance for sedimentary environments

Liang

Wang²,

Zhai³

et al. 2023

Front. Earth Sci.

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Introduction: Yardang stratum is the basic material unit of yardang landforms. Due to their protracted age and complex sedimentary structure, formative yardang stratum mechanisms remain poorly understood. Color, being one of the most intuitive, easily accessible, and important lithological indicators, can be used to identify yardang strata sedimentary environments. However, the lack of quantitative analysis and systematic research have limited how chromatic environmental proxies can be extracted and interpreted.Materials and methods: The Dunhuang Yardang National Geopark was selected for this experiment. Based on chromaticity, grain-size, chemical element, organic matter, and carbonate content measurements of yardang strata sediment samples, this study used correlation analysis and chromaticity proxy extraction to quantitatively characterize associated color changes, controlling factors, and sedimentary environments.Results and discussion: Results found significant cyclic changes in chromaticity parameter curves were observed in the profiles, which is likely indicative of a dry/wet evolutionary process that occurred during different stages of the yardang sedimentary environment. Organic matter content was the main factor affecting changes in brightness, while iron oxide content directly affected yardang sediment redness and yellowness values. Due to its low value, effects of carbonate content on brightness were obscured. The grain-size characteristics indirectly affect the brightness value through the content of quartz, feldspar and organic matter. Moreover, based on modern analogy method, the brightness and redness values are proved to be effective proxies for distinguishing the yardang sedimentary environment. Accordingly, it is concluded that the sedimentary environment of Dunhuang yardang landforms is composed of sedimentation that derived from lacustrine, aeolian, and alluvial environments, and that the chromaticity parameter range and characteristic color for sedimentary environments are extracted and quantified. Findings from this study not only rectify the lack of quantitative research on yardang sediment color theory but also provide an important theoretical basis for identifying sedimentary environments in the field.

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Section: Controlling Factors Of Yardang Sediment Chromaticitysupporting

confidence: 94%

Section: Control Factor Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Extraction Of the Characteristic Colormentioning

confidence: 99%

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Color changes in yardang strata sediment in the Dunhuang Yardang National Geopark, Northwest China: Controlling factors and significance for sedimentary environments

Liang

Wang²,

Zhai³

et al. 2023

Front. Earth Sci.

Self Cite

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“…Although EMMA is a very effective grain-size research tool [39,[53][54][55][56], through the result, the end-member model cannot effectively extract the grain size components affected by a single geological action (Figure 4). The grain size of the lake sediments was affected by the combined effects of multiple external stresses, or the strength of the same force has large fluctuations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Variations in Sediment Grain Size from a Lake in the Tianshan Mountain of Central Asia: Implications for Paleoprecipitation Reconstruction

Abuduwaili

Liu

et al. 2020

Applied Sciences

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The Tianshan Mountain is the largest mountain range in Central Asia, and the source area of many river systems. Changes in precipitation result in significant alterations to regional hydrological processes. Lake sediment from the Tian Shan representative of the last 90 years was chosen as the object of this research study. The grain-size data were used in conjunction with instrumental data to provide a method for determining changes in paleoprecipitation. The results showed the three-point moving average curve of the silty fraction content with a size of 16 to 32 μm to be significantly consistent with the curve of total precipitation from April to September since 1950. The total content of clay and fine-silty fraction (0–16 μm) was clearly consistent with the monthly precipitation in July. The total precipitation from April to September showed a significant downward trend from 1930 to 1975, and then an overall increasing trend beginning in 1975, which may have been influenced by the North Atlantic Oscillation. The change in precipitation reconstructed by the grain size of lake sediments was significantly different from the high-resolution gridded datasets (Climatic Research Unit Time-Series version 4.04) because of the lack of data from meteorological stations in China before 1950. The conclusions of this study are significant for evaluating the validity of climatic research unit (CRU) data in arid areas of Western China. In addition, the results of this study serve as a bridge between modern instrumental records and long time-scale paleoclimate research and provide important reference values for future reconstructions of long time-scale paleoclimate.

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“…However, previous research in the KMD reported that it was difficult to interpret these grain size parameters because the grain sizes of the sediments often had multi-modal distributions (X.L. Liang et al, 2019; A.M. Liang et al, 2020). Thus, we used the end-member modeling analysis (EMMA) to distinguish the components of multi-modal grain size distributions.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Paleoenvironmental changes in the eastern Kumtag Desert, northwestern China since the late Pleistocene

Song,

Yang,

Preusser

et al. 2023

Quat. res.

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Sedimentary records from the Kumtag (also known as Kumtagh) Desert (KMD) in northwestern China are investigated to better understand Late Quaternary paleoenvironmental changes in this hyper-arid region. Presented here are the results of probably the first systematic survey of sedimentary sequences from the KMD, with the chronology determined by the optically stimulated luminescence dating. The variation of sedimentary facies, supported by granular and geochemical paleoenvironmental proxies, is used to decipher the history of Late Quaternary environment changes. The results demonstrate that a constantly dry condition characterized the eastern KMD since the last glacial maximum, but with occurrences of wetter periods. From ca. 17 to 15 ka, fluvial activity was probably triggered by melting of glaciers in mountains located south of the KMD. A distinctly drier stage (ca. 13–7 ka) was recognized due to the prominent occurrence of aeolian sands. A wetter environment likely persisted between ca. 4.4 and 2.2 ka, consistent with evidence of human activities. While the causes of paleoenvironmental changes in the eastern KMD are still a matter of debate, the melting of glaciers in the Altyn-Tagh Mountains in the south must be considered as an important factor.

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Applying end-member modeling to extricate the sedimentary environment of yardang strata in the Dunhuang Yardang National Geopark, northwestern China

Cited by 23 publications

References 38 publications

Color changes in yardang strata sediment in the Dunhuang Yardang National Geopark, Northwest China: Controlling factors and significance for sedimentary environments

Color changes in yardang strata sediment in the Dunhuang Yardang National Geopark, Northwest China: Controlling factors and significance for sedimentary environments

Variations in Sediment Grain Size from a Lake in the Tianshan Mountain of Central Asia: Implications for Paleoprecipitation Reconstruction

Paleoenvironmental changes in the eastern Kumtag Desert, northwestern China since the late Pleistocene

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