Linking Monsoon Activity with River-Derived Sediment Deposition in the northern South China Sea

Qian Ge, Second Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration, Key Laboratory of Submarine Geosciences, State Oceanic Administration, Hangzhou, China, Z. George Xue, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, United States, Paul Liu, North Carolina State University Raleigh, Raleigh, NC, United States and Fengyou Chu, Second Institute of Oceanography, SOA, Key Laboratory of Submarine Geosciences, SOA, Hangzhou, China
Abstract:
Sediments retrieved from a gravity core were analyzed to examine the connection between East Asian Monsoon (EAM) and river-derived sediment deposition on the continental slope in the South China Sea since the Last Glacial Maximum. Combined clay mineralogy and grain size index analysis provided evidence of the sources of fine-grained sediment as well as for rebuilding the history of paleo-EAM. A shift of sediment source from the Pearl River to southwestern Taiwanese rivers was identified during the Holocene. The 4-8μm grain size fraction, as an environmental sensitive component and thus the EAM proxy, indicated the local deposition environment is mainly controlled by sea-level variations. And during the Holocene, the East Asian summer monsoon exhibited an in-phase relationship with East Asian winter monsoon, both following variations of the insolation intensity.
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