Origin, development and evolutionary model of shelf desertization environment in late stage of Upper Pleistocene

• Published in: Science China. Earth sciences Vol. 40; no. 2; pp. 207 - 214
• Main Author: 赵松龄 于洪军 刘敬圃
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Nature B.V 01.04.1997
• Subjects: Climatic conditions; Cores; desertization; Disintegration; dune; Dunes; Eolian deposits; Eolian sands; Evolution; Exposure; Geochemistry; late; Loess; Marine; Monsoon winds; Oceanography; Paleoclimate science; Pleistocene; Sea level; shelf; Shelving; stage; Upper; Winds; China, People's Rep
• ISSN: 1674-7313; 1006-9313; 1869-1897; 1862-2801
• DOI: 10.1007/BF02878380

Based on the study of palaeo-environmental evolution in the shelves of the Eastern China Seas, the concept of "shelf desertization" in the late stage of Upper Pleistocene is defined; the environmental background and evolutionary process of shelf desertization are analysed. Study on the records of subbottom profiling and the data of core samples from shelf areas revealed that during low sea-level stages, the sedimentary environment in the exposed shelf plains was dominated by aeolian depositional process under cold and dry climatic conditions, i.e. under the action of strong winter-monsoon winds. Parts of the exposed marine strata were disintegrated, and aeolian sand dunes were formed on the disintegrated marine deposits, from which the finer sediment grains were blown away by wind and deposited in the downwind areas to form the derivative loess deposits. Thus a desertization environmental system was formed in the exposed shelf plains of the Eastern China Seas.