Quantifying Late Pleistocene to Holocene Erosion Rates in the Hami Basin, China: Insights Into Pleistocene Dust Dynamics of an East Asian Stony Desert

Abstract

Wind is one of the major processes modifying the land surface in the Hami Basin, as evidenced by wind deflation gravel lags, yardangs, and gravel mantled eolian ripples. We report erosion rates for the Hami Basin using cosmogenic 10Be measurements. Bedrock erosion rates average 0.121 ± 0.0293 mm yr−1, which is similar to those of other wind‐eroded arid basins in East Asia, but is anomalously low when modern near‐surface wind speeds are considered. We posit that interglacial periods experienced lower erosion rates than glacial periods, and that the Hami Basin was likely once a larger dust producer than at present, with Pleistocene dust emissions driven by the eolian deflation of alluvial terrace deposits as well as bedrock weathering and abrasion. Wind erosion and dust production in the Hami Basin was largely regulated by the synoptically controlled spatial‐temporal distribution of precipitation and subsequent landscape evolution since at least the late Pleistocene.

From Desiccation to Re‐Integration of the Yellow River Since the Last Glaciation

“…Depending on the amount of exported material, this supposition might contrast with the traditional view that dust delivered to the North Pacific Ocean across a variety of timescales is primarily from Central and East Asian deserts active today (J. Sun et al., 2001; Yoon et al., 2019); a finding that is consistent with other studies from across Central and East Asia (Abell et al., 2020; Kapp et al., 2011; Pullen et al., 2011; D. Zhang et al., 2022). Overall, this is just another example that demonstrates how the use of modern conditions as a template to interpret past environments, while sometimes pertinent, may result in incorrect conclusions (Belanger et al., 2016; Nie et al., 2015; Stevens et al., 2010; Willenbring & Von Blanckenburg, 2010).…”

“…Depending on the amount of exported material, this supposition might contrast with the traditional view that dust delivered to the North Pacific Ocean across a variety of timescales is primarily from Central and East Asian deserts active today (J. Sun et al, 2001;Yoon et al, 2019); a finding that is consistent with other studies from across Central and East Asia (Abell et al, 2020;Kapp et al, 2011;Pullen et al, 2011;D. Zhang et al, 2022).…”

Evaluating the Drivers of Quaternary Dust Fluxes to the Western North Pacific: East Asian Dustiness and Northern Hemisphere Gustiness

“…This surface‐atmosphere feedback could have led to suppressed cloud formation and precipitation, and thus forced adjustments to fluvial driven sediment production in regions where landscape evolution occurred. Overall, decreasing regional precipitation, the establishment of the modern Gobi Desert at ∼2,600 ka, and its episodic development of stony surfaces (Lu et al., 2019b; Pullen et al., 2018; D. Zhang et al., 2020, 2022), all support elevated late Pliocene–early Pleistocene glacial dust fluxes that transition to lower values by the late Pleistocene.…”

“…The uncertainty pertaining to Pleistocene dust production is exacerbated when low dust‐emitting regions today are considered as major dust sources in the past. These include, but are not necessarily limited to, the Qaidam Basin (Kapp et al., 2011; Pullen et al., 2011), Yellow River floodplain (Nie et al., 2015), Hami Basin (Abell et al., 2020b; D. Zhang et al., 2020, 2022), and CLP (Kapp et al., 2015; Licht et al., 2016; Stevens et al., 2018). Similarly, for marine sediment cores, the incorporation of sediment redistributed by bottom currents into age model‐derived sediment accumulation rates complicates records of dust that have been previously used to explain East Asian dust dynamics across the Pleistocene (Abell et al., 2021; Anderson et al., 2020; Lee et al., 2022; Rea et al., 1998; Q. Zhang et al., 2020a).…”