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Environmental magnetism and paleoclimatic interpretation of the Sanmenxia loess-paleosol sequence in the southeastern extremity of the Chinese Loess Plateau

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Chinese Science Bulletin

Abstract

This is a report of multi-parameter mineral magnetic results of the Sanmenxia loess-paleosol couplets in the SE extremity of the Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP) over the interval of L1–L13 spanning the last 1 Ma. These results show that mass-specific magnetic susceptibility (χ), χ ARM and SIRM and their ratios exhibit parallel stratigraphic variations. Since superparamagnetic (SP) particles have significant contribution to χ but no contribution to remanence, e.g., ARM and SIRM, the strong linear correlations between χ and remanence (e.g., ARM and SIRM) suggest that the pedogenesis-produced magnetic grains are predominantly in small single domain range. Consequently, the significant contribution of SP particles to the bulk χ as supposed in previous studies has been obviously overestimated. χ ARM/χ data in Sanmenxia and median grain size records of typical loess sections from the hinterland of the CLP display a strong resemblance, implying that χ ARM/χ may be regarded as a reliable indicator for monitoring the variations of ferrimagnetic grain sizes. The results of S-ratio and HIRM ((SIRM+IRM−0.3T)/2) measurements indicate that there is significant enhancement of both soft magnetite/maghemite and hard hematite/goethite in paleosols associated with pedogenesis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geomechanics, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China

    Wang Xisheng, Yang Zhenyu, Sun Zhiming & Pei Junling

  2. Department of Earth Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, China

    Yang Zhenyu

  3. Department of Earth Science, University of Bergen, Allegt. 41, N-5007, Bergen, Norway

    Reidar Løvlie

Authors
  1. Wang Xisheng
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  2. Yang Zhenyu
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  3. Reidar Løvlie
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  4. Sun Zhiming
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  5. Pei Junling
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Correspondence to Wang Xisheng.

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Wang, X., Yang, Z., Løvlie, R. et al. Environmental magnetism and paleoclimatic interpretation of the Sanmenxia loess-paleosol sequence in the southeastern extremity of the Chinese Loess Plateau. CHINESE SCI BULL 51, 2755–2762 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-006-2192-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-006-2192-z

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