Xiaoke Qiang

Interplay between the Westerlies and Asian monsoon recorded in Lake Qinghai sediments since 32 ka

Two atmospheric circulation systems, the mid-latitude Westerlies and the Asian summer monsoon (ASM), play key roles in northern-hemisphere climatic changes. However, the variability of the Westerlies in Asia and their relationship to the ASM remain unclear. Here, we present the longest and highest-resolution drill core from Lake Qinghai on the northeastern Tibetan Plateau (TP), which uniquely records the variability of both the Westerlies and the ASM since 32 ka, reflecting the interplay of these two systems. These records document the anti-phase relationship of the Westerlies and the ASM for both glacial-interglacial and glacial millennial timescales. During the last glaciation, the influence of the Westerlies dominated; prominent dust-rich intervals, correlated with Heinrich events, reflect intensified Westerlies linked to northern high-latitude climate. During the Holocene, the dominant ASM circulation, punctuated by weak events, indicates linkages of the ASM to orbital forcing, North Atlantic abrupt events, and perhaps solar activity changes.

Glacial-Interglacial Indian Summer Monsoon Dynamics

Indian summer monsoon changes during the Pleistocene were influenced by dynamic effects originating in both hemispheres. The modern Indian summer monsoon (ISM) is characterized by exceptionally strong interhemispheric transport, indicating the importance of both Northern and Southern Hemisphere processes driving monsoon variability. Here, we present a high-resolution continental record from southwestern China that demonstrates the importance of interhemispheric forcing in driving ISM variability at the glacial-interglacial time scale as well. Interglacial ISM maxima are dominated by an enhanced Indian low associated with global ice volume minima. In contrast, the glacial ISM reaches a minimum, and actually begins to increase, before global ice volume reaches a maximum. We attribute this early strengthening to an increased cross-equatorial pressure gradient derived from Southern Hemisphere high-latitude cooling. This mechanism explains much of the nonorbital scale variance in the Pleistocene ISM record.

Magnetostratigraphic record of the Late Miocene onset of the East Asian monsoon, and Pliocene uplift of northern Tibet

Abstract Widespread eolian red clay underlying the Plio–Pleistocene loess–palaeosol succession in northern China has been dated magnetostratigraphically back to 8.35 Ma, indicating that the East Asian monsoon started at about the same time as the Indian monsoon. An initial sedimentation rate of 11 m/Myr increased gradually to 17.5 m/Myr by 6 Ma, and then decreased to 6 m/Myr between 5 Ma and 3.5 Ma. A marked increase in sedimentation rate and grain size beginning between 3.5 Ma and 3.1 Ma indicates that the East Asian winter monsoon strengthened at this time, and intensified further after 2.6 Ma. The temporal coincidence of the stronger winter monsoon and the Pliocene uplift of northwestern Tibet just before the onset of the Northern Hemisphere glaciation indicate that the three events could be causally linked.

Eolian evidence from the Chinese Loess Plateau: the onset of the Late Cenozoic Great Glaciation in the Northern Hemisphere and Qinghai-Xizang Plateau uplift forcing

On the basis of a newly-constructed record of magnetic susceptibility (SUS) and the depositional rate change of eolian loess-red clay sequences in the last 7.2 Ma BP from the hea Plateau, together with a cornperison of a record of °18O values from the equatorial East Pacific Ocean and eolian Quartz flux variations fmm the North Pacific Ocean, the evolutiomuy process of the Late Cenozoic Great Glaciation in the Northern Hemisphere can be divided into three stages: the arrival stage around 7.2–3.4 Ma BP, the initial stage at about 3.4—2.6 Ma BP, and the Great Ice Age since 2.6 Ma BP. The evolution of the East Asian monsoon is characterized by paid winter and summer monsoons, and it is basically composed of the initial stage of weak winter and summer monsoons, the transitional stage of simultaneous increase in intensity of winter and summer monsoons, and the prevailing stage of strong winter and week summer monsoons, or weak winter and strong summer monsoons. The Late Cenowic global tectonic uplift, paaicdarly the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau uplift and the associated CO2 concentration variation, controls the dng processes of the onset of Great Glaciation and the long-term changes of East Asian monsoom climate in the Northern Hemisphere to a large extent. The accelerating uplift of the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau between 3.4 and 2.6 Ma BP provided an important driving force to global climiatic change.

High-resolution record of geomagnetic excursions in the Matuyama chron constrains the ages of the Feiliang and Lanpo Paleolithic sites in the Nihewan Basin, North China

The Nihewan Basin (40 degrees N) in North China is a rich source of Early Pleistocene Paleolithic sites and thus a key area for studying early human evolution in high-latitude (from an early human perspective) East Asia. Here a high-resolution magnetostratigraphic investigation is carried out on a fluvio-lacustrine section in the northeastern Nihewan Basin, which contains the Feiliang and Lanpo Paleolithic sites. Paleomagnetic results suggest that this section records the lower portion of the Brunhes polarity chron and the upper Matuyama polarity chron. Furthermore, the Jaramillo polarity subchron and seven of the nine validated geomagnetic excursions within the Matuyama polarity chron are identified, including the Kamikatsura, Santa Rosa, Intra-Jaramillo, Cobb Mountain, Bjorn, Gardar and Gilsa excursions. The Feiliang artifact layer is located just at the bottom of the Cobb Mountain excursion, thus its age is estimated to be similar to 1.2Ma. The Lanpo artifact layer appears to be coeval with the Gilsa excursion, yielding an estimated age of similar to 1.6 Ma. This study provides new evidence for the presence of early humans in North China before 1.5 Ma and documents the powerful role of geomagnetic excursions: they provide valuable age control points for ongoing efforts to date the early Paleolithic sites.

Magnetic properties of the Tertiary red clay from Gansu Province, China and its paleoclimatic significance

The study on magnetic properties of the red clay indicates that the red clay and loesspaleosol sequence have a common magnetic mineralogy, with magnetite, maghemite, hematite (and possibly goethite) contributing to the magnetic behavior. The red clay magnetic susceptibility is also found to have a positive relation with extrafine superparamagnetic grains. This suggests that, like the Quaternary loess-paleosols, an ultrafine ferrimagnetic component produced during pedogenesis in the red clay under humid conditions also plays an important role in susceptibility enhancement in the soil units. This is supported by the correlation between Rb/Sr ratio and magnetic susceptibility. This signifies that, like the above loess-paleosol sequence, the magnetic susceptibility of the red clay can be used as a general proxy paleoclimatic indicator, although whether its susceptibility in the red clay is comparable to pedogenesis intensity and requires further investigation. Magnetic susceptibility variation in the red clay thus also provides an eolian/pedogenic record of paleoclimatic evolution. Study of the background susceptibility indicates that, on average, the absolute scale of the paleoclimatic shift from red clay development to Quaternary loess deposition is similar to the climatic shift from stage 5 (S1) to stage 2–4 (L1). This may suggest that during the Quaternary there is an evident strengthening of the absolute wind intensity to bring more (about double) coarser and less weathered (non-SP fraction) eolian magnetic input from the source regions to the Loess Plateau than during the Pliocene. The presence of eolian red clay since 7.5 Ma BP in central-northern China implies an important environmental change from the underlying Cretaceous red sandstone. The red clay development was closely related to global drying and climate cooling since the Cretaceous and closely associated with the abrupt uplift of the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau at about that time. This uplift of the plateau intensified the East Asia monsoon system and started red clay deposition.

Magnetostratigraphic determination of the age of ancient Lake Qinghai, and record of the East Asian monsoon since 4.63 Ma

Lake Qinghai, in North China, is the largest interior plateau lake in Central Asia, and is sensitive to climate change and the environmental effects of Tibetan Plateau uplift. We have obtained an almost continuous 626 m long sediment core from an in-filled part of the southern lake basin, which documents both the age of the origin of the lake and the evolution of the East Asian monsoon during the Late Cenozoic. High-resolution magnetostratigraphy provides a chronology back to ca. 5.1 Ma. Analysis of lithofacies and depositional environments reveal that the change from eolian to lacustrine facies occurred at ca. 4.63 Ma, corresponding to a shift from an arid or semi-arid to a more humid climate, which resulted in the origin of Lake Qinghai. Changes in sediment lithology and mean grain size indicate that the lake level fluctuated considerably, superimposed on a long-term trend from higher to lower levels in response to variations in the East Asian Monsoon. This archive is a significant additional source of information on regional and global environmental change, complementing the existing records from north China, which are mainly based on analysis of loess deposits.

New evidence for early presence of hominids in North China

The Nihewan Basin in North China has a rich source of Early Pleistocene Paleolithic sites. Here, we report a high-resolution magnetostratigraphic dating of the Shangshazui Paleolithic site that was found in the northeastern Nihewan Basin in 1972. The artifact layer is suggested to be located in the Matuyama reversed polarity chron just above the upper boundary of the Olduvai polarity subchron, yielding an estimated age of ca 1.7–1.6 Ma. This provides new evidence for hominid occupation in North China in the earliest Pleistocene. The earliest hominids are argued to have lived in a habitat of open grasslands mixed with patches of forests close to the bank of the Nihewan paleolake as indicated from faunal compositions. Hominid migrations to East Asia during the Early Pleistocene are suggested to be a consequence of increasing cooling and aridity in Africa and Eurasia.

Timing of the Brunhes-Matuyama magnetic polarity reversal in Chinese loess using 10Be

In Chinese loess, the Brunhes-Matuyama (B-M) geomagnetic reversal occurs ∼25 k.y. prior to the age found in marine sediments. This offset has been attributed by some to post-depositional magnetic overprinting of loess, while others have argued it is due to errors in the loess time scale. Here we solve this long-standing debate by exploiting a new method to extract reproducible records of geomagnetic field intensity from loess with 10 Be—a proxy for global average geomagnetic field intensity—and using it to show that a pronounced minimum in field intensity (a requirement for dipole field reversal) is recorded in two separate loess records at ca. 780 ± 3 kyr B.P. This timing is synchronous with the B-M reversal timing seen in marine records, verifying the standard loess time scale as correct, but it is ∼25 k.y. younger than the age (depth) of the magnetic polarity reversal recorded in these same Chinese loess sediments, demonstrating that loess magnetic overprinting has occurred.

Miocene climate change on the Chinese Loess Plateau: Possible links to the growth of the northern Tibetan Plateau and global cooling

The evolution of the Asian monsoon-arid environmental system during the Cenozoic was closely related to the growth of the Himalayan-Tibetan Plateau and global climate change. However, due to inconsistencies in paleoclimatic reconstructions and to various constraints on the timing of the growth of the Tibetan Plateau, the relative impacts of regional uplift and global cooling on Asian climate change remain controversial. Here we investigate the mineralogical composition of a Miocene Red Clay deposit on the western Chinese Loess Plateau in order to infer changes in chemical weathering and monsoon intensity. Variations of four mineralogical ratios (chlorite/quartz, illite/quartz, calcite/quartz, and protodolomite/quartz) reveal that the summer monsoon intensity was relatively strong during the early Miocene (23.5–18.5 Ma), weakened gradually until ∼9.5 Ma, and strengthened again in the late Miocene. We synthesized previously published thermochronological data from the northeastern Tibetan Plateau and surrounding mountains, and the results suggest that two phases of the rapid growth of northern Tibet occurred around 24–17 and 13–7 Ma. Comparison of paleoclimatic proxies and thermochronological data suggests that the gradual weakening of the summer monsoon intensity from 18.5 to 9.5 Ma paralleled global cooling, whereas two intervals of strengthened monsoon in the early and late Miocene were possibly related to the rapid growth of northern Tibet. Our combination of paleoenvironmental proxies and thermochronological data reveals possible links between Miocene Asian monsoon evolution, phased growth of the Tibetan Plateau, and global climate change, and confirms the interconnection of geodynamic and atmospheric processes in the geological past.