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Sediment source and environment evolution in Taiwan Island during the Eocene-Miocene

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Abstract

Taiwan Island’s outcropping strata can provide important insights into the sedimentary environment and source development of the southeast China margin. This research is based on the Eocene-Miocene strata of the Tsukeng area in the central Western Foothills, northeast shoreline of Taiwan Island and two sites of the East China Sea Shelf Basin (ECSSB), using petrology and detrital zircon U-Pb age for the analysis. Results show that central and northeast Taiwan Island experienced a transformation from continental to marine facies during the Eocene-Miocene, and the sandstone maturity changed with time. Source analysis shows that sediments from the Eocene-early Oligocene strata mainly originated from near-source Mesozoic rocks, whose zircon age is consistent with the igneous rock in the surrounding area and coastal Cathaysia, showing 120 Ma and 230 Ma peaks in the age spectrum diagram. Since the late Oligocene, peaks of 900 Ma and 1 800 Ma are seen, indicating that deposition of matter from the old block began. The sediments could be a mixture of the surrounding Mesozoic volcanic and fewer pre-Cambrian rocks sourced from the coastal river and sporadic old basement in the ECSSB instead of long-distance transportation.

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  1. State Key Laboratory of Marine Geology, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Yuanli Hou, Weilin Zhu, Peijun Qiao, Chi-Yue Huang, Yuchi Cui & Xianbo Meng

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  1. Yuanli Hou
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  2. Weilin Zhu
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  3. Peijun Qiao
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  6. Xianbo Meng
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Correspondence to Weilin Zhu.

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Foundation item: The National Natural Science Foundation of China under contract Nos 42076066, 41874076 and 92055203; the National Key Research and Development Program of China under contract No. 2018YFE0202400; the National Science and Technology Major Project under contract No. 2016ZX05026004-002.

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Hou, Y., Zhu, W., Qiao, P. et al. Sediment source and environment evolution in Taiwan Island during the Eocene-Miocene. Acta Oceanol. Sin. 40, 114–122 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-021-1756-8

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