Current study and prospect of the Old Red Sand along the southeast coast of China

Origin and Paleoenvironmental Significance of the Old Red Sand Along the Southeast Coast of China

“…The grain-size frequency curve (Figure 3A) of QF profile is very similar to that of a typical paleo-aeolian dune profile in Zhoushan (ZS) island, indicating QF ORS a aeolian sand accumulation, and the QF samples were all identified as aeolian sand by FLDA. Finally, all grain size characteristics of QF profile are consistent with those of other reported ORS profiles along the southeast coast of China, including a fine grain size, more silt and clay component, positive skewness, a poor sorting, very sharp peaks etc, indicating that they share the same provenance (Zeng et al, 1999a;Zeng et al, 1999b;Zhang et al, 2007;Fangen et al, 2012;Yu et al, 2014;Jin et al, 2018). It is suggested that quartz grains >63 μm are difficult to be transported by wind for long distances and are regarded as near-source materials (Liu, 1985), in QF profile, sand content is the first dominant grain size, constituting the highest composition, indicating a near-source accumulation.…”

“…Red dunes are widespread in south Asia and east Asia, including Sri Lanka, India and the southeast coast of China, etc (Alappat et al, 2013). The "Old Red Sand" (ORS) refers to a Quaternary sediment of semi-cemented medium fine sand, mainly in red or brown red, and intermittently distributed along the southeast coast of China, its thickness can reach several meters to tens of meters (Wu et al, 1995;Zeng et al, 1999a;Li et al, 2012;Jin et al, 2018). The coastal area, as a special zone of interaction among lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere, is very sensitive to climate and environment changes.…”

“…The large areas of red dunes had aroused great interests of geographers and geologists since the 1960s, researchers have done a lot of work on the ORS, however, there are still controversies on its origin nowadays. Firstly some researchers believed that the ORS belong to a marine deposit originated from beach sand in high sea level periods (Zeng and Huang, 1964;Zeng et al, 1999a;Li et al, 2012), while others considered it as a aeolian deposit derived from the exposed continental shelf plain in low sea level stages during glacial periods (Wu et al, 1995;Fangen et al, 2012;Jin et al, 2017). Different views on the origin of the ORS lead to contrasting environmental interpretations.…”

“…Different views on the origin of the ORS lead to contrasting environmental interpretations. The former interpretation implies that the development of the ORS resulted from more sand supply brought by rivers during high sea level stages in interglacial period (Zeng et al, 1999a;Li et al, 2012). The latter view indicates low sea level conditions and an intensified East Asian winter monsoon.…”

“…Subsequently by OSL dating, Jin Jianhui suggests that the ORS in Qingfeng, Fujian Province was formed in 110-33 Ka BP (Jin et al, 2017), Yu Mingtong suggests that the four layers of the ORS in Qingfeng, Pingtan island were formed in 122.5, 97.7, 83.1 and 61.9 Ka BP respectively (Yu et al, 2014). Hu Fangen suggests that the ORS in Jinjiang of Fujian Province was formed in 6 stages: 125-115, 105-97, 84-74, 61.5-52.0, 39-29 and 15-9 Ka BP respectively (Fangen et al, 2012), indicating that the ORS was formed since the last interglacial period, which promoted the study of the ORS to a new stage, that is, the ORS developed in both the last interglacial period and the last glacial period, but not occur in the LGM.…”