A high-resolution sediment record of East Asian summer monsoon from the northern South China Sea spanning the past 7500 years

High-resolution Holocene marine sediment records are limited, which hampers our understanding of paleomonsoon evolution. Continental shelf sediment records are derived mainly from terrestrial weathering products and are thus often sensitive to paleoclimate variations. In this study, the grain size and magnetic mineral composition of a well-dated sediment core (YJ Core) from the northern inner shelf of the South China Sea (SCS) were analyzed to provide a high-resolution record of the Holocene evolution of the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM). These magnetic and grain size records indicate that EASM intensity followed a general declining trend between approximately 6800 and 2000 cal yr BP. This general pattern is synchronous with other geologic archives from monsoon regions, and can be attributed to solar radiation forcing in the Northern Hemisphere. On centennial timescales, a weak EASM closely coincides with periods of weak solar activity. In addition, spectral analysis of clays reveals five prominent cycles, with periodicities of approximately 364, 202, 158, 119, and 104 years, which correspond to solar activity cycles. The similarities between the cyclicities of the Asian monsoon signal in sedimentary records and those of solar activity demonstrate that solar forcing has a relatively large influence on the centennial-scale variability of the EASM.

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Sensitive grain-size records of Holocene East Asian summer monsoon in sediments of northern South China Sea slope

Quaternary Research ◽

10.1016/j.yqres.2011.03.002 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 75 (3) ◽

pp. 734-744 ◽

Cited By ~ 40

Author(s):

Jie Huang ◽

Anchun Li ◽

Shiming Wan

Keyword(s):

Grain Size ◽

South China Sea ◽

South China ◽

East Asian Summer Monsoon ◽

Asian Summer Monsoon ◽

Northern South China Sea ◽

East Asian ◽

China Sea ◽

Size Population ◽

Asian Summer

AbstractChanges in paleoenvironments over the last 17,500 yr have been documented by a high-resolution clay mineralogy and grain–size records of Core KNG5 from the northern slope of the South China Sea. Our results indicate that clay minerals are mainly from the Pearl River from 17,500 to 12,500 cal yr BP, and the South China Sea modern current system began to form since 12,500 cal yr BP, as a result, Taiwan turns to be the major contributor of clay minerals after 12,500 cal yr BP. Two grain-size populations with high variability through time were identified in the 13–28 μm and 1–2.2 μm grain-size intervals. The 1–2.2 μm grain-size population are mainly controlled by provenance supply and current transport. The 13–28 μm grain-size fraction could be controlled mainly by the sea-level change. The 1–2.2 μm grain-size population record demonstrates that East Asian Summer Monsoon intensity generally follows changes in insolation and that the response is similar for a large area of China and other northern low-latitude records, implying the globality of the monsoon evolution since Holocene. The anomalous environmental conditions in the northern South China Sea may imply intensified ENSO activity during the late Holocene.

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