Abstract
The Alagxa Plateau, in the margin of the northeastern Tibetan Plateau, is one of the most important dust source areas in East Asia, and the widespread sandy desert in the area is important both as a reservoir and a source of eolian silty. The northeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau is one of the most actively-growing mountain belt on earth, and has large amounts of debris, with masses of fine grained material, which were continuously mobilized and deposited in the Alagxa Plateau by rivers, forming broad alluvial fans. It is possible that the role of fluvial sediments as a source of silty dust in the Alagxa Plateau has been underestimated. In this study, we test this hypothesis by investigating the iron mineralogical and geochemical characteristics of the fluvial sediments and the surface material of the sandy desert in the Alagxa Plateau, and comparing them with paleo-eolian dust deposits (loess) in the adjacent Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP) to investigate the possible linkages among the fluvial sediments, sandy desert and the last glacial loess of the CLP. The results show that sandy desert typically have high contents of goethite, and high ratios of goethite to hematite, similar to the fluvial sediments in the Alagxa Plateau. Based on the major element characteristics, field investigations and the results of previous studies, we found a genetic link between the silt component of the fluvial sediments and the sandy desert in the Alagxa Plateau with high value of Gt (goethite) and similarity of the Gt/(Hm (hematite)+Gt) ratio. But the silt component of the sandy desert main come from the adjacent fluvial sediments. The iron mineralogical characteristics (χ (magnetic susceptibility), χARM (anhysteretic susceptibility), SIRM (saturation isothermal remanent magnetization) and SIRMAF100mT (SIRM demagnetized at 100 mT)) of the CLP samples overlap with those of the fluvial sediments in the Alagxa Plateau, but there is a mismatch with the sandy desert samples. This suggests that the fluvial sediments are the source of a large amount of silty material which could be transported to the CLP. Therefore, we conclude that the fluvial sediment in the Alagxa Plateau is an important source of eolian silt, which is deposited in downwind region, and that this source has been previously underestimated.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Begét J E, Stone D B, Hawkins D B. 1990. Paleoclimatic forcing of magnetic susceptibility variations in Alaskan loess during the late Quaternary. Geology, 18(1): 40–43.
Che X D, Li G J. 2013. Binary sources of loess on the Chinese Loess Plateau revealed by U–Pb ages of zircon. Quaternary Research, 80(3): 545–551.
Chen L H, Qu Y G. 1992. Water and Land Resources and Their Rational Development and Utilization in the Hexi Region. Beijing: Science Press, 60–100. (in Chinese)
Chen Z, Li G J. 2013. Evolving sources of eolian detritus on the Chinese Loess Plateau since early Miocene: Tectonic and climatic controls. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 371–372(2): 220–225.
Hetzel R, Tao M X, Stokes S, et al. 2004. Late Pleistocene/Holocene slip rate of the Zhangye thrust (Qilian Shan, China) and implications for the active growth of the northeastern Tibetan Plateau. Tectonics, 23(6-TC6006): 1–17.
Hsu S C, Liu S C, Huang Y T, et al. 2008. A criterion for identifying Asian dust events based on Al concentration data collected from northern Taiwan between 2002 and early 2007. Journal of Geophysical Research, 113, D18306, doi: 10.1029/2007JD009574.
Jia J, Xia D S, Wang Y J, et al. 2015. East Asian monsoon evolution during the Eemian, as recorded in the western Chinese Loess Plateau. Quaternary International, 399: 156–164.
Judd D B, Wyszecki G. 1975. Color in Business, Science, and Industry. New York: John Wiley, 503–565.
Liu T S. 1985. Loess and the Environment. Beijing: China Ocean Press, 2–79.
Long X Y, Ji J F, William B. 2011. Rainfal-dependent transformations of iron oxides in a tropical saprolite transect of Hainan Island, South China: Spectral and magnetic measurements. Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres, 116(F3): 239–255.
Mehra O P, Jackson M L. 1960. Iron oxide removal from soils and clays by a dithionite-citrate system buffered with sodium bicarbonate. Clays Clay Miner, 7(1): 317–327.
Nie J S, Stevens T, Rittner M, et al. 2015. Loess Plateau storage of Northeastern Tibetan Plateau-derived Yellow River sediment. Nature Communications, 6(1): 8511, doi: 10.1038/ncomms9511.
Nie J S, Pullen A, Garzione C N, et al. 2018. Pre-Quaternary decoupling between Asian aridification and high dust accumulation rates. Science Advances, 4(2): eaao6977, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aao6977.
Oldfield F, Chiverrell R C, Lyons R, et al. 2014. Discriminating dusts and dusts sources using magnetic properties and hematite: Goethite ratios of surface materials and dust from North Africa, the Atlantic and Barbados. Aeolian Research, 13(13): 91–104.
Pan B T, Geng H P, Hu X F, et al. 2010. The topographic controls on the decadal-scale erosion rates in Qilian Shan Mountains, N.W. China. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 292(1–2): 148–157.
Prospero J M, Ginoux P, Torres O, et al. 2002. Environmental characterization of global sources of atmospheric soil dust identified with the Nimbus 7 total ozone mapping spectrometer (TOMS) absorbing aerosol product. Reviews of Geophysics, 40(1): 1002.
Qiang M R, Jin Y X, Liu X X, et al. 2016. Late Pleistocene and Holocene aeolian sedimentation in Gonghe Basin, northeastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau: Variability, processes, and climatic implications. Quaternary Science Reviews, 132: 57–73.
Schwertmann U. 1985. Formation of Secondary Iron Oxides in Various Environments. Paris: D.Reidel Publishing Company.
Smalley I J, O’Hara-Dhand K, Wint J, et al. 2009. Rivers and loess: The significance of long river transportation in the complex event-sequence approach to loess deposit formation. Quaternary International, 198(1–2): 7–18.
Song Y G, Shi Z T, Fang X M, et al. 2010. Loess magnetic properties in the Ili Basin and their correlation with the Chinese Loess Plateau. Science China Earth Sciences, 53(3): 419–431. (in Chinese)
Stevens T, Carter A, Watson T P, et al. 2013. Genetic linkage between the Yellow River, the Mu Us desert and the Chinese Loess Plateau. Quaternary Science Reviews, 78(19): 355–368.
Sun D H, Bloemendal J, Rea D K, et al. 2004. Bimodal grain-size distribution of Chinese loess, and its palaeoclimatic implications. Catena, 55(3): 325–340.
Sun J M. 2002a. Provenance of loess material and formation of loess deposits on the Chinese Loess Plateau. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 203(3–4): 845–859.
Sun J M. 2002b. Source regions and formation of the loess sediments on the high mountain regions of northwestern China. Quaternary Research, 58(3): 341–351.
Thompson R, Oldfield F. 1986. Environmental Magnetism. London: Allen and Unwin.
Tian Z H, Xiao W J, Windley B F, et al. 2014. Structure, age, and tectonic development of the Huoshishan–Niujuanzi ophiolitic mélange, Beishan, southernmost Altaids. Gondwana Research, 25(2): 820–841.
Torrent J, Liu Q S, Bloemendal J, et al. 2007. Magnetic Enhancement and Iron Oxides in the Upper Luochuan Loess–Paleosol Sequence, Chinese Loess Plateau. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 71(5): 1570–1578.
Wang X, Huang J P, Ji M X, et al. 2008. Variability of East Asia dust events and their long-term trend. Atmospheric Environment, 42(13): 3156–3165.
Washington R, Todd M, Middleton N J, et al. 2003. Dust-storm source areas determined by the total ozone monitoring spectrometer and surface observations. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 93(2): 297–313.
Wei H T, Banerjee S K, Xia D S, et al. 2013. Magnetic characteristics of loess-paleosol sequences on the north slope of the Tianshan Mountains, northwestern China and their paleoclimatic implications. Chinese Journal of Geophysics, 56(1): 150–158. (in Chinese)
Zan J B, Fang X M, Nie J S, et al. 2011. Magnetic properties of surface soils across the southern Tarim Basin and their relationship with climate and source material. Chinese Sci Bull, 56(3): 290–296.
Zan J B, Fang X M, Nie J S, et al. 2011. Magnetic properties of surface soils across the southern Tarim Basin and their relationship with climate and source material. Chinese Science Bulletin, 56(3): 290–296.
Zan J B, Fang X M, Yang S L, et al. 2015. Bulk particle size distribution and magnetic properties of particle-sized fractions from loess and paleosol samples in Central Asia. Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems, 16(1): 101–111.
Zhang J, Zhang B H, Zhao H. 2015. Timing of amalgamation of the Alxa Block and the North China Block: Constraints based on detrital zircon U-Pb ages and sedimentologic and structural evidence. Tectonophysics, 668–669: 65–81.
Zhang X Y, Arimoto R, An Z S, et al. 1993. Atmospheric trace elements over source regions for Chinese dust: concentrations, sources and atmospheric deposition on the Loess Plateau. Atmospheric Environment. Part A. General Topics, 27(13): 2051–2067.
Zhu X M, Zhong D K, Yuan X J, et al. 2016. Development of sedimentary geology of petroliferous basins in China. Petroleum Exploration and Development, 43(5): 890–901.
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41401046) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (lzujbky-2016-264, lzujbky-2016-bt01). We thank Dr. Jan BLOEMENDAL for critical discussions, constructive suggestions and English language improvement.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wang, Y., Jia, J., Lu, H. et al. Fluvial sediments in the Alagxa Plateau as a dust source: iron mineralogical and geochemical evidence. J. Arid Land 11, 217–227 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40333-019-0125-3
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40333-019-0125-3