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1.
《Quaternary Science Reviews》2003,22(10-13):1027-1033
The Liwa region of the United Arab Emirates contains some of the largest and most areally extensive megabarchanoid sand dunes on a global scale. Here we present optical dating results on samples of aeolian sediment from deep drill cores extracted from the largest dune field of the Liwa area. Optical dating of these core sediments using the single aliquot regeneration protocol indicates Mid–Late Holocene phases of rapid dune deposition, the most recent period of reactivation began at ca 2.8 ka. This event was preceded by a period of deposition at ca 5 ka. These results suggest that the dune systems of the southeastern Arabian Peninsula are closely linked to changes in Late Quaternary global climate, particularly linked to the intensity and spatial extent of palaeomonsoon rainfall. Since the last precessional maxima at ca 9 ka, at which time a peak in monsoonal rainfall has been recognised, a significant environmental transition to widespread desert conditions occurred in an apparently abrupt fashion. During the initial period of aridification, large quantities of sand were transported and deposited in the form of large and very large (up to 160 m high) scale aeolian bedforms. Following the initial phase of aeolian accumulation, the system appears to have remained in stasis.  相似文献   

2.
The remains of former lakes show that in the past the Arabian Peninsula experienced much wetter conditions than today. The last of these humid periods dates to about 10 to 5.5 ka ago. The chronological framework for an earlier humid phase, radiocarbon dated to some 35–20 ka, is inconsistent with evidence from other records from the region. Possibly, these ages are significantly underestimating the true depositional age due to methodological problems. The earliest phase of dune accumulation known so far is dated to the penultimate glaciation maximum of the mid latitudes (ca. 150 ka). Subsequently, dune accumulation occurred around 110 ka, 65 ka and 20 ka ago. All these phases concur with rapid drops in global sea level that caused a drying out of the Persian Gulf basin and of the shelf of the Oman coast. In contrast to some previous interpretations, it is concluded here that aeolian deposition has been limited by sediment supply and not by preservation potential.  相似文献   

3.
The extensive shoreline deposits of Lake Chilwa, southern Malawi, a shallow water body today covering 600 km2 of a basin of 7500 km2, are investigated for their record of late Quaternary highstands. OSL dating, applied to 36 samples from five sediment cores from the northern and western marginal sand ridges, reveal a highstand record spanning 44 ka. Using two different grouping methods, highstand phases are identified at 43.7–33.3 ka, 26.2–21.0 ka and 17.9–12.0 ka (total error method) or 38.4–35.5 ka, 24.3–22.3 ka, 16.2–15.1 ka and 13.5–12.7 ka (Finite Mixture Model age components) with two further discrete events recorded at 11.01 ± 0.76 ka and 8.52 ± 0.56 ka. Highstands are comparable to the timing of wet phases from other basins in East and southern Africa, demonstrating wet conditions in the region before the LGM, which was dry, and a wet Lateglacial, which commenced earlier in the southern compared to northern hemisphere in East Africa. We find no evidence that wet phases are insolation driven, but analysis of the dataset and GCM modelling experiments suggest that Heinrich events may be associated with enhanced monsoon activity in East Africa in both timing and as a possible causal mechanism.  相似文献   

4.
《Quaternary Science Reviews》2007,26(19-21):2617-2630
The linear dunes of the Kalahari, now largely inactive, have long been identified as having potential palaeoenvironmental significance. The application of optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating to these dunes in the 1990s provided the first chronology of aeolian accumulation in this region, though field methodologies and time-consuming multiple-aliquot laboratory protocols limited both the depth of sampling in dune bodies and the total number of samples dated.In order to permit a more thorough investigation of the potential of these dunes to preserve long chronological records, this intensive study presents 71 OSL ages from the linear dunes of the southwestern Kalahari at Witpan, South Africa, sampled with coring equipment at regular and frequent intervals down to bedrock.The earliest sand accumulation recorded at Witpan is at 104 ka, and in spatially discrete locations, other evidence of dune activity is recorded at 77–76, 57–52 and 35–27 ka. Although an inherently discontinuous archive, the linear dunes of the southwestern Kalahari have the potential to record multiple phases of dune construction. Following the Last Glacial Maximum there is near continuous evidence of dune-building, with a peak of accumulation recorded from 15 to 9 ka at five individual sites. This latter period is generally recognised from other proxy evidence as being unusually arid in this region, and such periods of dune activity are likely to be related to intensification of the continental anticyclone. During the Holocene, accumulation has continued at most sites sampled, albeit at a lesser intensity. This may imply that these dunes are presently not far from thresholds of activation.  相似文献   

5.
《Quaternary Science Reviews》2003,22(10-13):1067-1076
This study is concerned with the Late Quaternary climatic chronology of the Strzelecki Desert dunefields in central Australia. The sand ridges comprise layers of quartz sand, some of which include palaeosol horizons with carbonated rootlets providing excellent opportunity for dating of alternations of dune building and stability by using optically stimulated luminescence (OSL). Deduced from the OSL age of the oldest aeolian layer dated, we conclude that the onset of aridity dates back to at least ∼65 ka. Older phases of aeolian activity though, following a fluvial depositional phase 160 ka ago, cannot be excluded, although no aeolian layers giving evidence for this have been found in the two dunes dated here. Unconsolidated dune sands in the upper part of one section with Late Holocene (4 ka to modern) depositional ages indicate a reactivation of the dunefield in recent times.From the crosscheck of 14C ages of the carbonated rootlets with OSL results it is concluded that under the given environmental conditions radiocarbon dating of the calcareous rootlets is not able to provide reliable ages for the phase of soil development.  相似文献   

6.
《Quaternary Science Reviews》2004,23(16-17):1733-1756
This study shows that successions of Pleistocene carbonate aeolian deposits can be placed successfully in a geochronologic framework using magnetostratigraphic and susceptibility stratigraphic analysis supplemented by luminescence dating, studies of wave-cut platforms, and biostratigraphic evidence. The investigated aeolian system covers a significant part of southernmost Mallorca and is exposed in impressive coastal cliff sections.At the study site at Els Bancals the aeolian system has a maximum thickness of 16 m and is composed of alternating dark red colluvial deposits and greyish red aeolian dune and sand-sheet deposits forming seven cyclostratigraphic units. Each cyclostratigraphic unit represents landscape stabilisation, colluviation, and soil formation followed by dunefield development, when marine carbonate sand was transported far inland by westerly or north-westerly winds. The aeolian system is located on top of a wave-cut marine platform 12–14 m a.s.l. This platform probably formed during a sea-level highstand in Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 11 (427–364 ka), and renewed marine activity probably later in MIS 11 is indicated by the formation of beach deposits.Two sections at Els Bancals were sampled for a paleomagnetic study; additional samples were taken to detect variations in magnetic susceptibility (MS). The characteristic remanent magnetisation has been recovered for the most part of the succession in spite of diagenetic overprinting. There is evidence for two probably three reversal polarity excursions, possible connected to the Levantine, CR1 and CR0/Biwa III episodes. If this correlation is correct, the sampled succession represents a time interval in the Middle Pleistocene between ca 410 and ca 260 ka. This age estimate is supported by the MS study and by luminescence dates of 333±70 ka (aeolianite from lower part of the succession) and 275±23 ka (aeolianite from the top of the succession).The nature of the succession suggests deposition during alternating warm and moist (colluvial deposition; soil formation) and cold, dry and windy conditions (dunefield formation). The susceptibility signal can be correlated with the insolation signal at 65°N suggesting that environmental variation on Mallorca was linked to orbitally forced climate change, and it seems that aeolian activity and dunefield formation were linked to glacial or stadial periods.  相似文献   

7.
The establishment of a chronology of landscape-forming events in lowland and mid-altitude Tasmania, essential for assessing the relative importance of climatic and human influences on erosion, and for assessing present erosion risk, has been limited by the small number of ages obtained and limitations of dating methods. In this paper we critically assess previous Tasmanian studies, list published radiocarbon ages considered to be dependable, present new radiocarbon and thermoluminescence (TL) ages for 25 sites around Tasmania, and consider the evidence for the hypotheses that erosion processes at low and mid altitudes have been: (1) purely climatically controlled; and (2) influenced both by climatic and anthropogenic (increased fire frequency) effects. A total of 94 dependable finite ages (calibrated for radiocarbon and ‘as measured’ for TL and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) determinations) are listed for deposits comprising dunes, colluvium, alluvium and loess-like aeolian deposits. Two fall in the >100 ka period, 15 fall in the period 65–35 ka, and 77 fall in the period 35–0.3 ka. There was a sustained increase in erosion recorded in the period 35–15 ka, as reflected by a greater number of dated aeolian deposits during this period.We considered three possible biases that may have affected the age distribution obtained: the limitations of radiocarbon dating, sampling bias, and preservation bias. Sampling bias may have favoured more recent dune strata, but radiocarbon dating and preservation biases are unlikely to have significantly distorted the age distribution obtained.Long but intermittent aeolian deposition is recorded at two sites (Southwood B; c. 59–28 ka and Dunlin Dune; c. 29–14 ka) but there is no evidence of regional loess deposits such as found in New Zealand. The timing of increased erosion in Tasmania between 35 and 30 ka approximately coincides with the intermittent ten-fold increase of dust accumulation between 33 and 30 ka in the Antarctic Dome C ice core. The absence of widespread erosion before 35 ka, the abrupt increase of erosion around this time, the frequent association of erosion products with charcoal, the arrival of people in Tasmania at c. 40 cal ka, and the known use of fires by Aborigines to maintain areas of non-climax vegetation suggest that ecosystem disturbance by anthropogenic fires, in a drier climate than that presently prevailing, may have contributed to erosion in lowland and mid-altitude Tasmania after 35 ka. Thus the Tasmanian erosion record provides circumstantial support for the proposition that human dispersal in southeast Australia was accompanied by significant ecological change.  相似文献   

8.
Paleoenvironmental records extending well into the last glacial period are scarce in the steppe regions of southern South America. Here, we present a continuous record for the past 55 ka from the maar lake Laguna Potrok Aike (51°58′ S, 70°23′ W, southern Patagonia, Argentina). Previous studies on a sedimentary core from a lake level terrace near the northern margin of the lake covered parts of Oxygen Isotope Stage (OIS) 3 (59–29 ka) whereas a second core from the centre of the basin comprised the last 16 ka. Tephrostratigraphical constraints and OSL ages from a third core located below the lake level terrace provide the crucial piece to close the gap between the previous coring sites. High-resolution XRF and magnetic susceptibility as well as grain size data indicate a positive hydrological balance alongside with relatively high aeolian activity during the glacial which is contemporaneous with increased dust fluxes in Antarctica. This is therefore the first evidence for contemporaneity of aeolian deposition in both the target area (Antarctica) and in the major source area of Patagonia. During the Holocene climatic conditions driving sediment deposition seem to have been more variable and less dominated by wind compared to glacial times. The identification of a minor lake level lowering at approximately 4 cal ka BP allows to refine earlier paleoenvironmental reconstructions for the Holocene. Within error margins the OSL ages are consistent with published radiocarbon-dated records offering hence a valuable tool for further studies of the sediments from Laguna Potrok Aike. The new chronology confirms the age of three tephra layers up to now only found in Laguna Potrok Aike sediments and ascribed to OIS 3.  相似文献   

9.
The ReSaKo project undertook extended fieldwork across southern Cameroon to explore the palaeoenvironmental information recorded in the alluvial sediments of equatorial African rivers. 160 hand-corings reaching maximum depths of 550 cm were carried out on alluvial ridges and floodplains of major Cameroonian fluvial systems. These multilayered, sandy to clayey alluvia contain sedimentary form-units and palaeosurfaces, which provide excellent additional proxy data archives for the reconstruction of palaeoenvironmental conditions in western equatorial Africa. Coring transects and sedimentary profiles document grain-size shifts and distinguishable sedimentary units in the stratigraphic record, which evidence (fluvial-)morphological adjustments of the fluvial systems in response to external forcing and (river-) intrinsic variability. 76 14C-(AMS)-dated samples from organic sediment and macro-rests (fossil organic remains like wood, leafs, etc.) embedded in these sedimentary units indicate Late Pleistocene to recent ages (uncalibrated 14C-ages: 48–0.2 ka BP). The tentative interpretation of the alluvial record yields excellent additional information on the complex feedbacks between climate, ocean, fluvial as well as ecological systems and human activity in a little-studied region with high sensitive tropical ecosystems. δ13C-values (?35.5 to ?18.0‰) of the dated samples indicate the persistence of C3-dominated gallery forests across the rivers (‘fluvial rain forest refuges’) despite several climatic fluctuations (aridifications, e.g. Last Glacial Maximum around 20 ka BP, Younger Dryas 13–11 ka BP). This research complements earlier results from additional terrestrial and marine proxy data archives on the Late Quaternary history of monsoonal western equatorial Africa.  相似文献   

10.
Irene Zembo 《Sedimentary Geology》2010,223(3-4):206-234
The sedimentary record of the Val d'Agri basin is of great importance for understanding the Quaternary tectonic activity and climatic variability in the Southern Apennines. Changes in tectonic controls, sediment supply and climatic input have been identified. The interval from ~ 56 to ~ 43 ka was associated with asymmetric subsidence restricted to the north-eastern actively faulted margin of the basin and development of axial braided river and transverse alluvial fan systems. Short-lasting Mediterranean-type pedogenesis between ~ 43 and ~ 32 ka (MIS Stage 3) coexisted with progradation–aggradation of the southern alluvial fan deposits and southwards tilting of the basin floor. Aggradation ended with consumption of accommodation space after 32 ka. During a subsequent stage of decline of vegetation cover, possibly as a consequence of climatic cooling (probably MIS Stage 2), active progradation of alluvial fans occurred. Breakthrough of the basin threshold and entrenchment of the drainage network must therefore be attributed to a latest Pleistocene to Holocene age. The first stages of basin opening and fill, predating ~ 56 ka have only been inferred by stratigraphic considerations: the earliest lacustrine sedimentation should be middle Pleistocene or older in age. The following south-eastward basin widening allowed progradation of alluvial fan systems, which completely filled the lacustrine area (tentatively late middle Pleistocene). Pedogenesis in “Mediterranean-like” climate conditions caused the final development of a highly mature fersiallitic paleosol at the top of the fan surfaces, in areas of morpho-tectonic stability, plausibly during MIS Stage 5. The study results demonstrate the potential of applying a multidisciplinary approach in an intermontane continental settings marked by a relative rapid and constant tectonic subsidence and a high rate of sediment supply during the Pleistocene glacial–interglacial cycles.  相似文献   

11.
《Quaternary Science Reviews》2007,26(19-21):2598-2616
Linear dunes occupy more than one-third of the Australian continent, but the timing of their formation is poorly understood. In this study, we collected 82 samples from 26 sites across the Strzelecki and Tirari Deserts in the driest part of central Australia to provide an optically stimulated luminescence chronology for these dunefields. The dunes preserve up to four stratigraphic horizons, bounded by palaeosols, which represent evidence for multiple periods of reactivation punctuated by episodes of increased environmental stability. Dune activity took place in episodes around 73–66, 35–32, 22–18 and 14–10 ka. Intermittent partial mobilisation persisted at other times throughout the last 75 ka and dune activity appears to have intensified during the late Holocene. Dune construction occurred when sediment was available for aeolian transport; in the Strzelecki and Tirari Deserts, this coincided with cold, arid conditions during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 4, late MIS 3 and MIS 2, and the warm, dry climates of the late Pleistocene–Holocene transition period and late Holocene. Localised influxes of sediment on active floodplains and lake floors during the relatively more humid periods of MIS 5 also resulted in dune formation. The timing of widespread dune reactivation coincided with glaciation in southeastern Australia, along with cooler temperatures in the adjacent oceans and Antarctica.  相似文献   

12.
Small isolated dune fields in the northern Mojave Desert are important centers of biodiversity and archaeological occupation sites. Currently dunes at Ash Meadows, Nevada, are stabilized by vegetation and are experiencing erosion of their upwind margins, indicating a negative sediment budget. New OSL ages from dunes at Ash Meadows indicate continuous eolian accumulation from 1.5 to 0.8 ka, with further accumulation around 0.2 ka. Prior studies (e.g., Mehringer and Warren, 1976) indicate periods of dune accumulation prior to 3.3 ka; 1.9–1 ka; and after 0.9 ka. These periods of eolian accumulation are largely synchronous with those identified elsewhere in the Mojave Desert. The composition of the Ash Meadows dunes indicates their derivation from regional fluvial sources, most likely during periods when axial washes were active as a result of enhanced winter precipitation.  相似文献   

13.
The evolution processes and forcing mechanisms of the Horqin dunefield in northern China are poorly understood. In this study, systematic OSL dating of multiple sites is used together with pollen analysis of a representative section in order to reconstruct the evolution of the dunefield since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Our results show that there was extensive dune mobilization 25–10 ka, transition to stabilization 10–8 ka, considerable dune stabilization 8–3 ka, and multiple episodes of stabilization and mobilization after 3 ka. Comparison of dune evolution of the dunefields in northern China during the Holocene showed that Asian monsoon and resultant effective moisture have played an important role in the evolution of dunefields at the millennial time scale. Further analysis indicated that the dune evolution in the Horqin dunefield before 3 ka was synchronous with climatic changes. However, increasing human activity has impacted dune evolution during the last 3 ka.  相似文献   

14.
《Quaternary Research》2014,81(3):488-499
Paleoclimatic reconstruction based on aeolian sediments in the eastern Qaidam Basin (QB) has been hindered by the limited chronological data. Here we present 61 Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) ages. On the basis of these OSL ages and the lithologic stratigraphy, we propose the ‘effective moisture index (EMI)’ for aeolian sediments to reconstruct the effective moisture change. Based on the EMI from twelve sections, the effective moisture change, moisture sources and relevant mechanisms for paleoclimatic change in the eastern QB are discussed. The results indicate that (1) aeolian deposition started at least before 12.4 ± 0.7 ka during the deglaciation, the paleosols developed at the early and mid-Holocene, and aeolian sand and loess accumulated at mid- and late Holocene; (2) effective moisture history was: hyper-arid at 12.8–11.6 ka, humid and variable at 11.6–8.3 ka, moderately humid and stable at 8.3–3.5 ka, and increasingly arid at 3.5–0 ka; (3) the effective moisture change was mainly controlled by the Asian summer monsoon (ASM), which mainly followed the change of Northern Hemispheric summer insolation, and the westerlies strengthened and increased the aridity in the QB when the ASM shrank.  相似文献   

15.
《Quaternary Science Reviews》2007,26(3-4):351-367
High-resolution archaeological and paleoenvironmental records from California's Channel Islands provide a unique opportunity to examine potential relationships between climatically induced environmental changes and prehistoric human behavioral responses. Available climate records in western North America (7–3.8 ka) indicate a severe dry interval between 6.3 and 4.8 ka embedded within a generally warm and dry Middle Holocene. Very dry conditions in western North America between 6.3 and 4.8 ka correlate with cold to moderate sea-surface temperatures (SST) along the southern California Coast evident in Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Core 893A/B (Santa Barbara Basin). An episode of inferred high marine productivity between 6.3 and 5.8 ka corresponds with the coldest estimated SSTs of the Middle Holocene, otherwise marked by warm/low productivity marine conditions (7.5–3.8 ka). The impact of this severe aridity on humans was different between the northern and southern Channel Islands, apparently related to degree of island isolation, size and productivity of islands relative to population, fresh water availability, and on-going social relationships between island and continental populations. Northern Channel Islanders seem to have been largely unaffected by this severe arid phase. In contrast, cultural changes on the southern Channel Islands were likely influenced by the climatically induced environmental changes. We suggest that productive marine conditions coupled with a dry terrestrial climate between 6.3 and 5.8 ka stimulated early village development and intensified fishing on the more remote southern islands. Contact with people on the adjacent southern California Coast increased during this time with increased participation in a down-the-line trade network extending into the western Great Basin and central Oregon. Genetic similarities between Middle Holocene burial populations on the southern Channel Islands and modern California Uto-Aztecan populations suggest Middle Holocene movement of people at this time from southern California desert environs westward to the southern islands, a migration perhaps stimulated by increased continental aridity.  相似文献   

16.
Barrier systems contain lengthy, but complex, records of long-term environmental fluctuations. The Wilderness embayment, South Africa, contains a system of shore-parallel barriers reaching up to 200 m above modern sea level. This study reports the results of chronological, topographical (both on- and off-shore), sedimentological and micromorphological analyses within the Wilderness embayment. Sixty-one new luminescence ages from sixteen sites in unconsolidated dunes and three separate barriers are presented which, when combined with previously published luminescence ages from the area, provide a high-resolution chronological framework for the emplacement and evolution of the barrier system. The preserved barriers have been constructed within at least the last two glacial–interglacial cycles with notable phases between 241–221 ka, 159–143 ka, 130–120 ka, 92–87 ka and post 6 ka. Multiple phases of barrier construction occurred during sea-level highstands, with sediment deposition on each individual barrier occurring over at least two interglacials. Holocene evolution of the system sheds light on earlier events, with dune preservation occurring only during early regression from the Mid-Holocene highstand. Tectonic stability at Wilderness allowed glacio-eustatically formed shorelines to occupy similar positions on multiple occasions. This, in conjunction with a relatively humid climate and a well-vegetated landscape, enabled deflated sediment from beaches to form dunes which stacked upon each other to form an extensive and complex vertical accretionary sequence. Repeated erosion and recycling of pre-existing barriers as well as barrier construction on what is currently the off-shore platform during still-stands in sea-level regressional cycles, when sea levels dropped below ca ?50 m from the present day, has added to the complexity of the preserved terrestrial barrier record. The Wilderness barrier system contrasts with barriers developed elsewhere in the world where higher rates of crustal uplift have allowed preservation of a more complete and more widely spaced palaeorecord. This research also shows the utility of integrating off-shore topography as revealed by bathymetry, with terrestrial topographic data for the better understanding of the evolution of palaeo-coastlines and the preserved dune record found on present-day coastal plains. Local variation in the topography of the continental shelf at Wilderness has generated spatial and temporal complexity within the sedimentary records of individual barriers as well as having a significant influence on preservation.  相似文献   

17.
Extensive coastal dunes occur in the Great Lakes region of North America, including northwestern Michigan where some are perched on high (~ 100 m) bluffs. This study focuses on such a system at Arcadia Dunes and is the first to systematically generate optical ages from stratigraphic sections containing buried soils. Dune growth began ca. 4.5 ka during the Nipissing high lake stand and continued episodically thereafter, with periods of increased sand supply at ca. 3.5 ka and ca. 1.7 ka. The most volumetrically dominant phase of dune growth began ca. 1.0 ka and continued intermittently for about 500 years. It may have begun due to the combined effects of a high lake phase, potential changes in lake hydrodynamics with final isostatic separation of Lake Superior from Lakes Michigan and Huron, and increased drought and hydrologic variability associated with the Medieval Warm Period. Thus, this latest eolian phase likely reflects multiple processes associated with Great Lakes water level and climate variability that may also explain older eolian depositional events. Comparison of Arcadia ages and calendar corrected 14C ages from previous studies indicate broad chronological agreement between events at all sites, although it appears that dune growth began later at Arcadia.  相似文献   

18.
《Quaternary Science Reviews》2007,26(3-4):386-404
This study provides an interpretation of interrelated Quaternary fluvial and aeolian activity related to climate change on Cooper Creek in the Lake Eyre Basin in southwestern Queensland, central Australia. The extensive muddy floodplain is characterised by buried sandy palaeochannels now almost entirely invisible but stratigraphically connected to source-bordering dunes that emerge as distinctive sandy islands through the floodplain surface. Luminescence dating has identified pronounced periods of fluvial activity represented by abundant sandy alluvium from Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 8–3. While all these sandy fluvial episodes on Cooper Creek were much more powerful than anything subsequent, they appear to be ranked in order of declining activity. MIS 8–6 saw reworking of almost the entire floodplain whereas subsequent phases of reworking were far less extensive. Source-bordering dunes were derived from active sandy channels in late MIS 5 (∼85–80 ka) and mid MIS 3 (50–40 ka). After ∼40 ka sand-channel activity largely ceased and the floodplains and channels were inundated with mud, isolating the dunes as emergent features. Although aeolian reworking of the upper parts of some dunes has continued to the present, they show remarkable resilience, having survived without appreciable migration for at least 40 ka. Whilst the channels once determined the location of source-bordering dunes, in an interesting role reversal the remnant dunes now determine the position of many contemporary flood-channels and waterholes by deflection and confinement of overbank flows.  相似文献   

19.
Relict sand wedges are ubiquitous in southern Patagonia. At six sites we conducted detailed investigations of stratigraphy, soils, and wedge frequency and characteristics. Some sections contain four or more buried horizons with casts. The cryogenic features are dominantly relict sand wedges with an average depth, maximum apparent width, minimum apparent width, and H/W of 78, 39, 3.8, and 2.9 cm, respectively. The host materials are fine-textured (silt loam, silty clay loam, clay loam) till and the infillings are aeolian sand. The soils are primarily Calciargidic Argixerolls that bear a legacy of climate change. Whereas the sand wedges formed during very cold (?4 to ?8 °C or colder) and dry (ca. ≤100 mm precipitation/yr) glacial periods, petrocalcic horizons from calcium carbonate contributed by dustfall formed during warmer (7 °C or warmer) and moister (≥250 mm/yr) interglacial periods. The paleo-argillic (Bt) horizons reflect unusually moist interglacial events where the mean annual precipitation may have been 400 mm/yr. Permafrost was nearly continuous in southern Patagonia during the Illinoian glacial stage (ca. 200 ka), the early to mid-Pleistocene (ca. 800–500 ka), and on two occasions during the early Pleistocene (ca. 1.0–1.1 Ma).  相似文献   

20.
We employed X-ray diffraction methods to quantify clay mineral assemblages in the Indus Delta and flood plains since ~ 14 ka, spanning a period of strong climatic change. Assemblages are dominated by smectite and illite, with minor chlorite and kaolinite. Delta sediments integrate clays from across the basin and show increasing smectite input between 13 and 7.5 ka, indicating stronger chemical weathering as the summer monsoon intensified. Changes in clay mineralogy postdate changes in climate by 5–3 ka, reflecting the time needed for new clay minerals to form and be transported to the delta. Samples from the flood plains in Punjab show evidence for increased chemical weathering towards the top of the sections (6–< 4 ka), counter to the trend in the delta, at a time of monsoon weakening. Clay mineral assemblages within sandy flood-plain sediment have higher smectite/(illite + chlorite) values than interbedded mudstones, suggestive of either stronger weathering or more sediment reworking since the Mid Holocene. We show that marine records are not always good proxies for weathering across the entire flood plain. Nonetheless, the delta record likely represents the most reliable record of basin-wide weathering response to climate change.  相似文献   

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