Insights into the provenance of the Chinese Loess Plateau from joint zircon U-Pb and garnet geochemical analysis of last glacial loess

Fenn, Kaja; Stevens, Thomas; Bird, Anna; Limonta, Mara; Rittner, Martin; Vermeesch, Pieter; Andò, Sergio; Garzanti, Eduardo; Lu, Huayu; Zhang, Hanzhi; Lin, Zeng

Abstract

The Chinese Loess Plateau, the world’s largest and oldest loess record, preserves evidence of Asia’s long-term dust source dynamics, but there is uncertainty over the source of the deposits. Recent single-grain detrital zircon U-Pb age analysis has progressed this issue, but debates remain about source changes, and the generation and interpretation of zircon data. To address this, we analyze different groupings of new and existing datasets from the Loess Plateau and potential sources. We also present the results of a first high resolution sampling, multi-proxy provenance analysis of Beiguoyuan loess using U-Pb dating of detrital zircons and detrital garnet geochemistry. The data shows that some small source differences seem to exist between different areas on the Loess Plateau. However, sediment source appears to be unchanging between loess and palaeosols, supporting a recent material recycling hypothesis. Our zircon and garnet data demonstrates, however, that Beiguoyuan experienced a temporary, abrupt source shift during the last glacial maximum, implying that local dust sources became periodically active during the Quaternary. Our results highlight that grouping data to achieve bigger datasets could cause identification of misleading trends. Additionally, we suggest that multi-proxy single-grain approaches are required to gain further insight into Chinese Loess Plateau dust sources.

Citation

Fenn, K., Stevens, T., Bird, A., Limonta, M., Rittner, M., Vermeesch, P., …Lin, Z. (2018). Insights into the provenance of the Chinese Loess Plateau from joint zircon U-Pb and garnet geochemical analysis of last glacial loess. Quaternary Research, 89(3), 645-659. https://doi.org/10.1017/qua.2017.86

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 18, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Nov 16, 2017
• Publication Date: May 1, 2018
• Deposit Date: Nov 30, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: May 17, 2018
• Journal: Quaternary research
• Print ISSN: 0033-5894
• Electronic ISSN: 1096-0287
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 89
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 645-659
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/qua.2017.86
• Keywords: Earth-Surface Processes; Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous); General Earth and Planetary Sciences
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/479808
• Publisher URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/quaternary-research/article/insights-into-the-provenance-of-the-chinese-loess-plateau-from-joint-zircon-upb-and-garnet-geochemical-analysis-of-last-glacial-loess/1C2E5D86A7517FB6B3AB3A235DF4E09D