Quartz OSL dating of sand dunes of Late Pleistocene in the Mu Us Desert in northern China |
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| Authors: | Zhong He Jie Zhou ZhongPing Lai LinHai Yang JianMin Liang Hao Long XianJiao Ou |
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| Institution: | 1. State Key Laboratory for Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi''An 710075, PR China;2. Luminescence Dating Group, Key Laboratory of Salt Lake Resources and Chemistry, Qinghai Institute of Salt Lakes, Chinese Academic Sciences, 18 Xinning Road, Xining 810008, PR China;3. Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039, PR China;4. School of Geography and Tourism, Jiaying University, Meizhou 514015, PR China |
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| Abstract: | The Mu Us Desert, located in the northwestern fringe of the East Asian monsoon region, is sensitive to climate variability. The desert is characterized by mobile, semi-fixed and fixed sand dunes. Alternating units of dune sands and sandy palaeosols in the Mu Us Desert imply multiple episodes of dune building and stabilization, in response to the ebb and flow of the East Asian monsoon. Desert evolution and climatic change of high-resolution in the Mu Us Desert are still poorly understood due to limited numerical dating results. In the present study, 19 samples collected from five sand dune sections along a northwest–southeast transect in the Mu Us Desert were dated using quartz optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and single aliquot regenerative-dose (SAR) protocol. Internal checks of the OSL dating indicate that the SAR protocol is appropriate for equivalent dose (De) determination for the samples under study. Combined with the lithologic stratigraphy and the luminescence chronology, the sand dune development in the Mu Us Desert during the Late Pleistocene is discussed. Our results indicate that the sand was mobilized approximately at 91 ka, 71 ka, 48–22 ka, 5 ka, 1 ka, and 0.44 ka; the sand was fixed approximately at 65 ka and Holocene Optimum period in the interior Mu Us Desert. The Mu Us Desert formed at least before ～144 ka, and has shown increasing aridity in the Late Pleistocene. |
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