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Last glacial climate instability documented by coarse-grained sediments within the loess sequence, at Fanjiaping, Lanzhou, China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Hanchao Jiang ,
Ping Wang ,
Jessica Thompson ,
Zhongli Ding  and
Yanchou Lu
Hanchao Jiang*
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Earthquake Dynamics, Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration, P.O. Box 9803, Beijing 100029, PR China
Ping Wang
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Earthquake Dynamics, Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration, P.O. Box 9803, Beijing 100029, PR China
Jessica Thompson
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Science, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
Zhongli Ding
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, PR China
Yanchou Lu
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Earthquake Dynamics, Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration, P.O. Box 9803, Beijing 100029, PR China
*
⁎Corresponding author. Fax: +86 10 62009190.

E-mail addresses:hcjiang@ies.ac.cn, hanchaojiang@hotmail.com (H. Jiang).

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Abstract

Optically Stimulated Luminescence dating, grain-size analysis and magnetic susceptibility measurements were conducted on the Fanjiaping loess section, from the western Chinese Loess Plateau. The results confirm that last glacial high-frequency climatic shifts were documented in mid-latitude continental archives. The grain-size record indicated that coarse-grained sediments with horizontal bedding and channel-fill structures were only deposited in several short intervals, equivalent to the beginning of marine oxygen isotope stage (MIS) 4 and the early to middle MIS 3. This probably implies brief rainfall intensification of the Asian summer monsoon, and its disappearance since the late MIS 3 to MIS 2 may have been a response to significant glacial cooling in the Northern Hemisphere. Previous investigations revealed high sea-surface temperatures at high latitudes at the start of MIS 4, and the early to middle MIS 3 intensification of summer insolation in the Northern Hemisphere, implying evident climate amelioration. Climate improvement favors boreal forest recovery, enhancing both winter and summer air temperatures. The resultant smaller equator-polar temperature gradient probably helped the moisture-laden summer monsoon to penetrate northward. This study thus provides new significant information about the response of terrestrial loessic palaeoenvironments to millennial-timescale climatic fluctuations during the last glacial period.

Keywords

OSLGrain sizeChinese loessMillennial-scale climate oscillationLanzhou
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 72 , Issue 1 , July 2009 , pp. 91 - 102
Copyright
University of Washington

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