TY - JOUR
T1 - Astronomical calibration of loess-paleosol deposits at Luochuan, central Chinese Loess Plateau
AU - Lu, Huayu
AU - Liu, Xiaodong
AU - Zhang, Fuqing
AU - An, Zhisheng
AU - Dodson, John
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank two anonymous reviewers for significantly improving an early version of this manuscript and Mr. Wenfeng Yang for much help. Prof. Vandenberghe and Mr. Nugteren participated in the fieldwork. This work was partly supported by the 9.5 key research project fund of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KZ951-A1-402), and the 973 Tibet Programme of the State Science and Technology Commission of China (SSTC).
PY - 1999/11
Y1 - 1999/11
N2 - The 140 m loess-paleosol profile at Luochuan in the central Chinese Loess Plateau was sampled at 5-cm intervals in loess units and at 3 cm in paleosol units, in order to obtain a high resolution climatic record covering the past 2.5 million years. All samples were measured for magnetic susceptibility, which is regarded as a good proxy index of the East Asian summer monsoon strength. On the basis of the astronomical theory of Pleistocene climatic change, an age model of the Luochuan loess-paleosol sequence was developed by tuning the magnetic susceptibility record to time-series of insolation changes. The results show that the ages of the boundaries between the Malan and Lishi, and Lishi and Wucheng loess formations are 71 and 1320 kyr BP, respectively. The onset of loess accumulation is at 2470 kyr BP. Our age model was tested by comparing the orbitally derived ages with absolute age determinations of magnetic reversals, and cross-spectrum analyzing with solar radiation variations for summer at 65 °N. These indicate that the calibration provides a reliable time scale for the Luochuan loess-paleosol deposit.
AB - The 140 m loess-paleosol profile at Luochuan in the central Chinese Loess Plateau was sampled at 5-cm intervals in loess units and at 3 cm in paleosol units, in order to obtain a high resolution climatic record covering the past 2.5 million years. All samples were measured for magnetic susceptibility, which is regarded as a good proxy index of the East Asian summer monsoon strength. On the basis of the astronomical theory of Pleistocene climatic change, an age model of the Luochuan loess-paleosol sequence was developed by tuning the magnetic susceptibility record to time-series of insolation changes. The results show that the ages of the boundaries between the Malan and Lishi, and Lishi and Wucheng loess formations are 71 and 1320 kyr BP, respectively. The onset of loess accumulation is at 2470 kyr BP. Our age model was tested by comparing the orbitally derived ages with absolute age determinations of magnetic reversals, and cross-spectrum analyzing with solar radiation variations for summer at 65 °N. These indicate that the calibration provides a reliable time scale for the Luochuan loess-paleosol deposit.
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U2 - 10.1016/S0031-0182(99)00113-3
DO - 10.1016/S0031-0182(99)00113-3
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0032733212
SN - 0031-0182
VL - 154
SP - 237
EP - 246
JO - Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology
JF - Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology
IS - 3
ER -