large scale bedforms sediment distribution and sand mobility in the eastern north sea off the danish west coast abstract two side scan sonar surveys were carried out 9 months apart in a 24 km2 off thorsminde at the danish west coast were water depth is 12 18 m sediment samples were systematically collected in the same area using a 250 m sampling grid the north sea study area is exposed to strong wind induced coastal currents and high waves and thereby characterized by significant sediment transport the seabed data were used to analyse the large scale dynamical bedforms found in the area the mobility of the bedforms the areal variation of the seabed mean grain size and the grain size variation across the large bedforms the compilation of side scan sonar mosaics revealed very large bedforms with a mean wavelength of approximately 500 m and heights of 1 3 m these bedforms indicate a north going net sediment transport caused by the jutland coastal current large dunes l 10 100 m and smaller bedforms were also recorded as well as large shoreface connected ridges with a spacing of 3 4 km the bedform configuration appears to be relatively stable only small changes having been observed between the two surveys even though a 100 yr cyclone and several storms occurred between the two surveys the small changes observed also indicate a net northerly sediment transport the surface sediments reveal a remarkably high positive correlation between the mean grain size and the position across the very large flow transverse bedforms from coarse sand in the troughs to fine sand at the crest and lee side slope of the bedforms

the paleoclimatic record provided by eolian deposition in the deep sea the geologic history of wind the mineral component of pelagic sediment is brought to the deep sea by transport in the wind extraction and analysis of this dust allows estimation of the past aridity of the eolian source region via flux determinations and of the intensity of the transporting winds from grain size data these two parameters the grain size and mass flux of dust vary independently there are three significant sources of modern dust eastern and central asia northwest africa and arabia all in the northern hemisphere as the rainfall associated with the intertropical convergence zone is an effective barrier to southerly transport of dust the northern hemisphere is an order of magnitude more dusty than is the southern an asymmetry that has characterized most of the cenozoic eolian flux data show that most of the northern hemisphere was more arid during glacial maxima with 3 to 5 times as much dust transported during glacial stages than during interglacials only northwestern south america varied in the opposite sense the periodicity of quaternary variation in both eolian flux and eolian grain size data is strongly influenced by the milankovitch cycles of orbital variability wind intensities vary on a shorter time scale than the general 100 kyr cycles of glaciation and general aridity eolian grain sizes display forcing at precessional 19 and 23 kyr tilt 41 kyr and at approximately 30 kyr periodicities as a result the generalization that winds are uniformly stronger during glacial times is not valid whole cenozoic records show that the largest change in dust flux an order of magnitude increase occurred in the northern hemisphere and reflects continental drying associated with the late pliocene onset of northern hemisphere glaciation southern hemisphere eolian records show no sign of paleoclimatic changes in the late pliocene the most important change in cenozoic atmospheric circulation was a severalfold reduction in wind intensity that occurred at the time of the paleocene eocene boundary before then latest cretaceous and paleocene winds were essentially as strong as those of the late cenozoic this shift appears to be one of several climatic responses to a change in the nature and amount of global heat transport at about 55 ma

oxygen isotope calibration of the onset of ice rafting and history of glaciation in the north atlantic region we report here that dsdp site 552a cored with the hydraulic piston corer on the west flank of rockall bank recovered an undisturbed sequence of alternating white deep sea carbonate oozes and dark coloured layers that are rich in glacial debris oxygen isotope analysis of the sequence together with detailed nannofossil and palaeomagnetic stratigraphy shows that the first major horizon of ice rafting occurred at about 2 4 myr and was preceded by a minor pulse of ice rafting at about 2 5 myr the carbon isotope record shows that the site has been bathed by a water mass of similar characteristics to present day north atlantic deep water at least since 3 5 myr

changes in sand content of loess deposits along a north south transect of the chinese loess plateau and the implications for desert variations geological records have shown that the deserts east of the helan mountains in northern china were covered by grass during the holocene optimum whereas during marine oxygen isotope stages 2 and 4 distribution of the deserts was almost the same as at present the wide advance retreat cycles of the deserts may have exerted an important control on grain size changes in the loess of the loess plateau by altering the distance between the source and the accumulation zone of the loess this challenges the widely accepted model that winter monsoon winds were the sole factor responsible for spatial and temporal changes in loess texture to observe spatial changes in sedimentological characteristics of loess during the last glacial interglacial cycle the texture of loess was measured along a north south transect of the loess plateau this transect consists of nine loess sections starting at yulin in the transitional region between the loess plateau and the mu us desert and ending at weinan in the southernmost part of the loess plateau southward changes in sand 63 m content along the transect suggest that variations in desert extent have indeed played a significant role in loess grain size distributions particularly in the northern part of the loess plateau it is proposed that sand content 63 m of loess in the loess desert transitional zone may be used as a proxy indicator for proximity to the desert margin

evolution of strike slip duplexes and wrench related folding in the central part of al jabal al akhdar ne libya abstractthe deformation in the central part of al jabal al akhdar ne libya is dominated by e w right lateral strike slip fault zones that form a conjugate system with the n s left lateral strike slip faulting the dextral wrench dominated transpression is responsible for the formation of strike slip duplexes en echelon folds and thrusts that deform the cretaceous eocene sedimentary sequences the strike slip duplex is formed by the progressive linkage of horsetail like structures at the western tip of the al bayda strike slip fault that joined splays coming from other dextral strike slip faults the master linear fault branches into second order dextral or sinistral faults that regroup into a linear single fault faults started from arrays of en echelon extensional extensional shear fractures that then coalesced into throughgoing strike slip faults shortening was accompanied by significant n s striking left lateral strike slip displacements with the development of ne to ese and sw plunging major f

partly pedogenic origin of magnetic variations in chinese loess quaternary sequences of interbedded aeolian silts loess and buried soils palaeosols potentially provide one of the best terrestrial records of past climates1 5 magnetic susceptibility variations in loess and palaeosol sequences from china are strongly correlated with climate induced fluctuations of oxygen isotope ratios in deep sea sediments2 4 6 8 as an explanation of this correlation it has been suggested that the recorded variations in magnetic susceptibility depend primarily on the degree of dilution by non magnetic bulk loess constituents of a uniform magnetic assemblage derived from remote but unknown sources6 8 it has also been suggested that such a model involving changes in the accumulation rate of loess superimposed on a constant flux of magnetic particles provides a relative geological timescale through the control of loess deposition by astronomically modulated climate fluctuations7 here we report a preliminary test of this model using rock magnetic properties especially sensitive to variations in magnetic grain size our results show that palaeosols are characterized by much finer magnetic grain size assemblages than are the intervening loess units this suggests that a simple model based on constant magnetic influx and dilution by variable amounts of non magnetic loess is inadequate our magnetic measurements establish the close comparability of the fine grained magnetic minerals in the palaeosol samples to those in contemporary soils and thus point to a partially pedogenic origin for the magnetic mineral assemblages in the palaeosols

climatic sub cycles recorded by the fourth paleosol layer at luochuan on the loess plateau the chinese loess paleosol succession deep sea sedimentary sequences and ice cores are the three types of paleoclimatic records measurements were made of the ancient climatic proxies of magnetic susceptibility median diameter of grain size and content 40 m and the caco3 content of samples collected at 1 cm depth intervals in the fourth paleosol layer of the luochuan loess paleosol section on the chinese loess plateau wavelet analysis of the data identified cycles of climate change which were compared to the marine 18o record of specmap the results showed that 1 when the fourth paleosol layer was forming the paleoclimate was relatively stable but five extreme climatic events were identifiable as occurring around 408 381 376 368 and 361 kabp 2 two of these regional events differed from the global trend 3 during marine isotope stage mis 11 the fourth paleosol layer of the luochuan loess section recorded a regional quasi 19 ka climatic sub cycle and 4 this sub cycle was also reflected globally in the specmap data indicating that during mis11 this sub cycle was regionally and globally synchronized

optically stimulated luminescence dating of late quaternary loess deposits in the coastal region of north china provenance and paleoclimatic implications abstract the aeolian deposits in the coastal region of north china are important for reconstructing paleoclimate in this paper chronology climatic proxies and chemical compositions of four loess sections were studied optically stimulated luminescence osl dating results indicate that the coastal loess was accumulated during late quaternary with ages ranging from the penultimate glacial period to the latest holocene both granulometric characteristics and geochemical properties indicate that the dust provenance of the coastal loess is partially different from that of the chinese loess plateau characterized by more proximal contributions except distal dust transported by northwesterly winter winds from the inland gobi and sand deserts the coastal loess also contains proximal local coarse particles which were derived from the exposed shelf as well as neighboring hills multiple climatic proxies including color magnetic susceptibility and particle size parameters correlate well with the marine specmap 18o record indicating that climatic changes in the coastal region of north china during the late quaternary was mainly controlled by variations of the east asian monsoon driven by changes in global ice volumes

paleorainfall reconstructions from pedogenic magnetic susceptibility variations in the chinese loess and paleosols the rock magnetic properties of the chinese loess and paleosols constitute a unique and sensitive record of east asian paleoclimate through the quaternary period systematic variations in the concentration and grain size of the magnetic minerals in these sediments have produced systematic variations in the magnetic susceptibility signal which can be easily and rapidly measured at many sites across the loess plateau variations in many other rock magnetic properties can be used to identify the key shifts in ferrimagnetic grain size but magnetic susceptibility alone is sufficiently sensitive to record stadial and interstadial climate stages as well as glaciations and interglaciations past changes in rainfall and monsoon activity for this region are reconstructed from the susceptibility variations the susceptibility record is calibrated using the modern relationship between rainfall and pedogenic susceptibility on the loess plateau our rainfall reconstructions identify enhanced summer monsoonal activity in the chinese loess plateau region in the early holocene and the last interglaciation in the presently semiarid western area of the plateau annual precipitation in interglacial times was up to 80 higher than at present in the more humid southern and eastern areas values were up to 20 higher than today s levels during the last glaciation precipitation decreased across the entire plateau typically by 25 the relationship between pedogenic susceptibility climate and weathering age was examined over the northern hemisphere temperate zone and the observed positive correlation between rainfall and susceptibility indicates that climate rather than soil age is the predominant factor that controls pedogenic susceptibility enhancement in loess soils

loess stratigraphy in central china abstract loess sequences in central china provide a detailed record of climate changes during the last 2 5 million years at least 44 major shifts from glacial to interglacial conditions occurred during this time in china prolonged loess deposition lasting more than 40 millennia occurred eleven times with only four of these intervals in brunhes chron the climate oscillations took place with increased frequency between 2 4 and 0 5 ma compared to the last half million years major shifts toward cooler and drier climates occurred at about 2 4 ma 1 2 ma and 0 5 ma while less pronounced shifts are dated to 1 65 ma 0 8 ma and 0 2 ma three of the last four reversals of the earth s magnetic field whose lithostratigraphic position has been detail are recorded in a glacial deposit the low field magnetic susceptibility of loess and soils which reflects the concentration of ultrafine magnetite is related to the degree of pedogenesis and serves as a proxy measure of climate the accumulation rate of the magnetite was fairly constant throughout the last 1 2 million years and can serve as a measure of time susceptibility records from localities near xifeng and luochuan located 160 km apart are compared and used to define informal lithostratigraphic units in the loess plateau of china

preliminary magnetostratigraphy of a thick eolian red clay loess sequence at lingtai the chinese loess plateau magnetic remanence and bulk susceptibility measurements are reported for a 305 m eolian loess red clay sequence at lingtai the chinese loess plateau polarity zonation defined by about 680 remanence data yields a basal age of about 7 05 ma for the section which represents the oldest wind blown dust deposited continuously in north central china during the late cenozoic the resultant magnetostratigraphic scheme implies a nearly linear accumulation rate about 2 98 cm ka of atmospheric dust on the loess plateau during the period of 7 05 to 2 58 ma comparison of the bulk susceptibility record with the pedogenic characteristics of the red clay observed in the field suggests that magnetic susceptibility in the red clay is not as useful as in the loess soil sequence to indicate summer monsoon variations

long term marine bedload segregation and sandy versus gravelly holocene shorelines in the eastern english channel abstract retreating cliffs comprising fringing gravel or sandy beaches line much of the english and french coasts in the eastern english channel locally gravel has formed significant barrier accumulations overlying thick finer grained deposits although sandy deposits are abundant on the bed of the eastern channel significant aeolian dunes are restricted to embayments on the west facing french coast between the somme estuary and cape gris nez these embayments show holocene continuity of deposition of relatively homogenous sand with the dunes overlying beach washover and estuarine sediments it is argued that the occurrence of gravelly shorelines or of sandy shorelines exhibiting significant aeolian dunes largely reflects a combination of three factors 1 the inherited coastal lithology and morphology characterised by soft rock cliffs with or without embayments that were potential holocene sediment sinks 2 coastal orientation relative to large scale tide and wind driven marine bedload segregation processes that operated during the holocene and have led to preferential sand concentrations in the eastern corner of the channel and possibly concomitant relative enrichment in nearshore gravel elsewhere 3 coastal orientation relative to the synoptic westerly wind field responsible for significant aeolian dune building where such sand concentrations occurred the only coast where these three conditions were met favourably for significant aeolian dune building is the west facing french coast north of the somme estuary which benefitted during the holocene from large scale eastward advection of sand from the bed of the channel this sand was concentrated along a well defined coast parallel transport pathway driven by tidal currents enhanced by coriolis forcing and especially by the coast orthogonal synoptic westerly winds as sea level rise slowed or stabilised following the middle holocene the sand was piled onshore in embayments to form aeolian dunes by these coast orthogonal winds leaving no scope for the formation of gravel shorelines this coastal sand transport pathway is still operational elsewhere the inherited coastal morphology and orientation in terms of both the coriolis effect and westerly wind forcing have not favoured similar large scale sand trapping in coastal sinks as a result the shorelines are characterised by retreating cliffs and fringing beaches with a few major gravel barriers formed in local downdrift sinks and comprising clasts reworked by storms from offshore gravel deposits on the bed of the channel and from cliff retreat the sharp change in facies from fine grained sediments to overlying gravel within these barriers may have been enhanced by sand depletion caused by the large scale holocene bedload segregation processes that operated in the eastern channel it is suggested that if the permanence of the present day 3 d morphology of the eastern english channel and the same hydrodynamic forcing notably the same wind field as during the holocene are accepted then the suggested model of coastal sedimentation involving preferential large scale drift of channel bed sand towards the north south oriented french coast north of the somme estuary would also predict permanent dominantly gravelly high sea level beach sedimentation on the opposite english coast

ice volume forcing of east asian winter monsoon variations in the past 800 000 years particle size measurements of some typical loess soil samples taken in different localities of the chinese loess plateau demonstrate that the grain size ratio of 10 m can be used as an indicator of variations in intensity of the east asian winter monsoon winds grain size curves of the baoji and weinan sections show that this proxy indicator is very sensitive to loess soil alterations analytical results also suggest that during soil forming periods eolian dust accumulation was still substantial and hence loess deposition can be regarded as a nearly continuous process during the quaternary period in this study we compared the baoji grain size time series with the specmap marine isotope record with the objective of elucidating the dynamic linkage between changes in global ice volume and the winter monsoon circulation both records show good agreement at both time and frequency domains in particular the winter monsoon variations are also dominated by a 100 000 yr period over the past 800 000 yr it is thus inferred that direct local insolation forcing could be less important in driving the east asian winter monsoon variability and alternatively variations in glacial age boundary conditions may have played a key role in modulating and pacing its strength and timing

observations of nearshore circulation rip currents a sector scanning doppler sonar was deployed at the end of the scripps institution of oceanography pier aimed in toward the surf zone estimates of acoustic backscatter intensity and radial velocity were obtained seaward of the break point over a wedge with an arc of about 45 and a radius of 200 to 400 m the acoustic intensity is proportional to some combination of the bubble density and the suspended sediment in the water well defined jets of water extending seaward from the surf zone or rip currents were observed these rip currents occurred episodically recurred aperiodically one to four times per hour or so and lasted several minutes each the water transported offshore within the rips was rich in suspended sediment and bubbles producing distinctive bright patterns that can be easily recognized in successive images of backscatter intensity from the sonar fluid velocities were estimated from the doppler shift of the sonar signal approaching 0 7 m s in some of the events simultaneously a transect of temperature density and turbidity within the rip current was obtained with conductivity temperature depth ctd and optical backscatter strength obs sensors these data describe the ejection of warm turbid water from the surf zone and provide a comparison between the acoustic intensity and the optical turbidity of the fluid the horizontal extent of the sonar measurements and the vertical resolution of the ctd obs measurements complement each other in the study of the dynamics of the nearshore environment exchange rates are not fully resolved here since only one seaward jet is contained within the field of view however these observations suggest that rip currents could cause significant exchange between the nearshore and offshore waters

sea level changes an integrated approach sea level changes an integrated approach in october 1985 sepm sponsored a four day conference entitled sea level changes an integrated approach the purpose of the conference was to provide a forum for an interdisciplinary exchange of ideas on sea level changes and to provide an opportunity for integrating various types of evidence in approaching unresolved issues the conference was successful in bringing together scientists from industry academia and government representing all of the major geosciences disciplines presentations of many new papers plus significant releases of data that were previously held proprietary provided fertile ground for discussion this much cited volume represents the best of the material presented at the conference includes the early vail chart

gravel deposits on the margins of the qinghai xizang plateau and their environmental significance abstract the thick deposits of quaternary gravels found along the margins of the qinghai xizang tibet plateau have been studied for decades here we concentrate on two sediment series widely developed along the kunlun tian shan and qilian mountains the xiyu formation a molassic series of lower pleistocene age and the middle and upper pleistocene gobi gravels these two series with their contained fossil assemblages throw light on the question of the mean altitudes and uplift rates of the tibetan plateau during the quaternary and on the related problem of the vigour and penetration of advected summer monsoonal moisture into central asia the sedimentary series on the northern piedmonts of the tibetan plateau considered here challege the view that plateau uplift accelerated in the upper pleistocene they indicate that the plateau had reached mean altitudes in the range 4000 5000 m perhaps by the end of the lower pleistocene and certainly by the middle pleistocene this diminished the incursion of southerly monsoonal moisture and so imposed arid and semi arid conditions across much of a vast region north of the plateau which among other effects precluded widespread mountain glaciation in the lower pleistocene and general ice sheet glaciation of the tibetan plateau as a whole

dynamics diffusion and geomorphological significance of tidal residual eddies many shallow tidal areas show the occurrence of ebb and flood surplusses organized in cell like structures or tidal residual eddies they seem to arise from a nonlinear transfer of vorticity from the oscillating tidal field to the mean field the irregular structure of the bottom topography or the coastline acting as a catalyst to produce the necessary vorticity gradients the dynamical characteristics of the eddies assist our understanding of the geomorphology of the sea bed

magnetic properties derived from a loess section at the northern piedmont of tianshan mountains xinjiang china and their paleoenvironmental significance

pleistocene climates in china dated by magnetic susceptibility the magnetic susceptibility of loess and interbedded soils in central china varies with the degree of pedogenesis and serves as a proxy measure of climate the concentration of magnetic minerals in the sediment is inversely proportional to sedimentation rates throughout the brunhes epoch susceptibility measurements combined with the reversal stratigraphy provide a time scale that is independent of astronomic chronology on this scale the susceptibility record closely parallels the oxygen isotope fluctuations in deep sea sediments suggesting a close interdependence of the chinese dust falls the volume of land based ice and global climate

wind blown origin of the pliocene red clay formation in the central loess plateau china abstract in order to determine the depositional processes of the pliocene red clay formation deposited directly beneath the plio pleistocene loess in the chinese loess plateau four red clay sections spanning over 400 km are studied grain size analysis of closely spaced samples in the sections shows that the particles of the red clay are very fine with the sand fraction 63 m being negligible and that all the curves indicating changes in different grain size parameters have a similar pattern the grain size records in the upper part of the four sections are almost identical with the median grain size centered at 4 8 m the ree patterns of 28 samples from the jiaxian red clay section are all characterized by lree enrichments relatively flat hree and slight negative eu anomaly being similar to those of eolian loess and the average upper continental crust these lines of evidence point to a wind blown origin of the red clay deposits accumulation of the loess soil sequences in the chinese loess plateau during the past 2 6 ma can be therefore regarded as the continuation of the pliocene atmospheric dust deposition observations of spatial grain size changes in the loess plateau suggest that the eolian red clay might be transported mainly by the westerlies differing significantly from the overlying loess that was transported essentially by the east asia winter monsoonal winds

magnetic susceptibility evidence of monsoon variation on the loess plateau of central china during the last 130 000 years the magnetic susceptibility of loess and paleosols in central china represents a proxy climate index closely related to past changes of precipitation and vegetation and thus to summer monsoon intensity time series of magnetic susceptibility constructed for three loess paleosol sequences in the southern part of the chinese loess plateau document the history of summer monsoon variation during the last 130 000 yr they correlate closely with the oxygen isotope record of stages 1 to 5 in deep sea sediments soils were forming during intervals of strong summer monsoon whereas loess units were deposited at times of reduced monsoon intensity the chinese loess paleosol sequence can thus be viewed as a proxy record of asian monsoon variability extending over the last 2 5 myr

astronomic timescale for the pliocene atlantic δ18o and dust flux records of ocean drilling program site 659 high resolution benthic oxygen isotope and dust flux records from ocean drilling program site 659 have been analyzed to extend the astronomically calibrated isotope timescale for the atlantic from 2 85 ma back to 5 ma spectral analysis of the 18o record indicates that the 41 kyr period of earth s orbital obliquity dominates the pliocene record this is shown to be true regardless of fundamental changes in the earth s climate during the pliocene however the cycles of sahelian aridity fluctuations indicate a shift in spectral character near 3 ma from the early pliocene to 3 ma the periodicities were dominantly precessional 19 and 23 kyr and remained strong until 1 5 ma subsequent to 3 ma the variance at the obliquity period 41 kyr increased the timescale tuned to precession suggests that the pliocene was longer than previously estimated by more than 0 5 m y

early pleistocene occurrence of acheulian technology in north china acheulian tools with their associated level of cognizance heralded a major threshold in the evolution of hominin technology culture and behavior thus unraveling occurrence ages of acheulian technology across different regions worldwide constitutes a key aspect of understanding the archeology of early human evolution here we present a magneto cyclochronology for the acheulian assemblage from sanmenxia basin loess plateau north china our results place a sequence of stable normal and reversed paleomagnetic polarities within a regional lithostratigraphic context the acheulian assemblage is dated to be older than the matuyama brunhes boundary at 0 78 ma and is found in strata that are probably equivalent to a weak paleosol subunit within loess layer l9 in the chinese loess paleosol sequence which corresponds to marine isotope stage mis 23 a relatively subdued interglacial period with age range of 0 89 0 92 ma this age of 0 9 ma implies that acheulian stone tools were unambiguously present in north china during the early pleistocene it distinctly enlarges the geographic distribution of acheulian technology and brings its occurrence in north china back into the early pleistocene which is contemporaneous with its first emergence in europe combined with other archeological records the larger area over which acheulian technology existed in east asia during the terminal early pleistocene has important implications for understanding early human occupation of north china

origin of detrital fluxes in the southeast indian ocean during the last climatic cycles because of a close relationship between detrital flux variations and magnetic susceptibility ms flux ms cm 3 of bulk sediment multiplied by the linear sedimentation rate variations in the southeast indian basin of the southern ocean ms flux profiles have been used to examine the spatial and temporal detrital flux changes in this basin during the last climatic cycle results indicate a general increase in detrital material input during the coldest periods suggesting a widespread phenomenon at least on the basin scale mineralogical data geochemical data and 87sr 86sr isotopic ratios have been used to determine the origin and transport mechanisms responsible for increased detrital flux during glacial periods mineralogical and geochemical data show that these glacial highs are due to increases in both kerguelen crozet volcanic and antarctic detrital inputs the 87sr 86sr isotopic composition of the 45 m fraction indicates that the kerguelen crozet province contributes to at least 50 of the coarse particule input to the west this contribution decreases eastward to reach less than 10 these tracers clearly indicate that the crozet kerguelen province was a major source region of detrital in the western part of the basin during glacial times in contrast material of antarctic origin is well represented in the whole basin fine and coarse fractions because of the minor amount of coarse particles in the sediments volcanic particles from kerguelen and crustal particles from antarctica have most probably been transported by the antarctic bottom water current and or the circumpolar deepwater current during glacial periods as is the case today nevertheless the presence of coarse particles even in low amount suggests also a transport by ice rafting sea ice and icebergs originated from both kerguelen and antarctic sources however the relative importance of both hydrographic and ice rafting modes of transport cannot be identified accurately with our data during low sea level stands glacial maximum periods increasing instability and erosion of the continental platform and shallow plateaus could have resulted in a more efficient transfer of crustal and volcano detrital material to the southeast indian basin at the same time extension of the grounded ice shelves over the continental margins and increase in the erosion rate of the antarctic ice sheet could have induced a greater input of ice rafted detritus ird to southern ocean basins enhancement of the circumpolar deepwater current strength might have also carried a more important flux of detrital material from kerguelen however an increase in the bottom water flow is not necessarily required

forcing of late cenozoic northern hemisphere climate by plateau uplift in southern asia and the american west geologic evidence indicates that net vertical uplift occurred on a large kilometer scale and at accelerating rates during the middle and late cenozoic in plateaus of southern asia and the american west based on this evidence general circulation model sensitivity tests were run to isolate the unique effects of plateau uplift on climate the experiments simulated significant climatic changes in many places some far from the uplifted regions the basic direction of most of these simulated responses to progressive uplift is borne out by changes found in the geologic record winter cooling of north america northern europe northern asia and the arctic ocean summer drying of the north american west coast the eurasian interior and the mediterranean winter drying of the north american northern plains and the interior of asia and changes over the north atlantic ocean conducive to increased formation of deep water the modeled changes result from increased orographic diversion of westerly winds from cyclonic and anticyclonic surface flow induced by summer heating and winter cooling of the uplifted plateaus and from the intensification of vertical circulation cells in the atmosphere caused by exchanges of mass between the summer heated and winter cooled plateaus and the mid latitude oceans disagreements between the geologic record and the model simulations in alaska and the southern rockies and plains may be related mainly to the lack of narrow mountain barriers in the model orography taken together the observed regional trends comprise much of the pattern of late cenozoic climatic deterioration in the northern hemisphere that culminated in the plio pleistocene ice ages the success of the uplift sensitivity experiment in simulating the correct pattern and sign of most of the observed regional climatic trends points to uplift as an important forcing function of late cenozoic climatic change in the northern hemisphere at time scales longer than orbital variations however the modest amplitude of the uplift induced cooling simulated at high latitudes indicates a probable need for additional climatic forcing

sensitivity of eurasian climate to surface uplift of the tibetan plateau experiments with climate models are used to illustrate how earth s climate could be expected to change if surface uplift occurred the experiments contrast two climate simulations one with all continents at sea level and one with present day mountains and plateaus the simulations in the eurasia sector show that surface uplift increased elevation produces marked increases in the intensity of summer and winter monsoons of asia with development of wetter climates to the south and east of the tibetan plateau and drier climates to the north and west of the plateau there is a general cooling in northern polar latitudes comparison of simulations from two different models shows that the magnitude of the simulated changes depends upon how the models calculate the land surface hydrology and the ocean temperature the simulated changes produced by surface uplift agree in a general way with many geologic indicators of late cenozoic climate change the results suggest that surface uplift of mountains and platea

mobile sand deposits and shoreface sediment dynamics in the inner german bight north sea abstract this paper presents a conceptual model for the net bedload transport regime on the shoreface of the german bight the model is based on the spatial distribution of the surficial sediment cover north sea sands which is identical to the uppermost layer in the seismic recordings sediment thickness was measured using very high resolution seismic profiling chirp sonar and vibrocoring the three dimensional sediment distribution was estimated using geostatistical methods cokriging the results demonstrate a longshore sand distribution with three distinct zones in zone 1 0 10 m water depth the sediments attain their maximum thickness of 10 2 5 m between 10 and 15 m water depth a relatively thin sand layer of 0 4 1 5 m is observed within zone 2 the seaward adjacent zone 3 15 20 m water depth is characterized by an averaged sand thickness of 2 3 m with local maxima of 5 6 m further offshore the sand layer decreases to about 1 2 m thickness the net bedload transport directions inferred from this sediment zonation comprise a longshore sediment bypassing in zone 1 which results in a substantial sediment supply to the innermost part of the german bight due to bedload convergence shore normal bedload transport shifts sand to and fro across the coastal profile although the net directional transport is seawards this results in sediment depletion between the 10 and 15 m isobaths zone 2 and an adjacent sediment accumulation in deeper waters zone 3

transient eddy formation around headlands eddies with length scales of 1 10 km are commonly observed in coastal waters and play an important role in the dispersion of water borne materials the generation and evolution of these eddies by oscillatory tidal flow around coastal headlands is investigated with analytical and numerical models using shallow water depth averaged vorticity dynamics eddies are shown to form when flow separation occurs near the tip of the headland causing intense vorticity generated along the headland to be injected into the interior an analytic boundary layer model demonstrates that flow separation occurs when the pressure gradient along the boundary switches from favoring accelerating to adverse decelerating and its occurrence depends principally on three parameters the aspect ratio b a where b and a are characteristic width and length scales of the headland h cda where h is the water depth cd is the depth averaged drag coefficient and uo a where uo and are the magnitude and frequency of the far field tidal flow simulations with a depth averaged numerical model show a wide range of responses to changes in these parameters including cases where no separation occurs cases where only one eddy exists at a given time and cases where bottom friction is weak enough that eddies produced during successive tidal cycles coexist interacting strongly with each other these simulations also demonstrate that in unsteady flow a strong start up vortex forms after the flow separates leading to a much more intense patch of vorticity and stronger recirculation than found in steady flow

a new molluscan record of the monsoon variability over the past 130 000 yr in the luochuan loess sequence china this paper presents a new record of monsoon changes that occurred in china during the late pleistocene study of terrestrial mollusks from the loess sequence in luochuan indicates alternating strengthened summer and winter paleomonsoons these variations based on the content of xerophilous hygrophilous and oriental species are in very good agreement with the variation inferred from pedology sedimentology and climate modeling the three occurrences of currently southeastern species in the sequence indicate that the climate conditions were warmer and wetter than today at about 88 60 and 10 ka the main occurrence of xerophilous taxa between 75 and 65 ka is interpreted as drier than today in agreement with other proxy data these results demonstrate that fossil terrestrial mollusk data can provide reliable information on past monsoon variability in asia

towards an orbital time scale for chinese loess deposits abstract in this study we analyzed the grain size of the baoji loess soil sequence at 10 cm intervals results show that grain size variations are very sensitive to loess soil alternations with loess units being much coarser than soils such a change in loess soil grains is interpreted as the result of the glacial interglacial cyclic variations in the intensity of the winter monsoon winds out of siberia the grain size record is thus employed as a proxy indicator of the winter monsoon circulation and tuned to the orbital records calculated recently by berger and loutre 1991 under the control of major magnetic reversals the tuning is independent of any correlation with 18o signals in the deep sea sediments the resulting grain size time scale is tightly constrained as suggested by the following facts 1 the filtered obliquity and precession components from the grain size data on the orbital time scale closely match the theoretical orbital records 2 ages of the major magnetic reversals estimated from the grain size time scale are in good agreement with the k ar dated ages 3 there is close coherence between the baoji grain size time series and the orbital variations at the orbital frequency bands over the entire 0 2 5 ma period and 4 the grain size record on the orbital time scale shows a close similarity to the orbitally tuned dsdp site 607 and odp site 677 18o records examination of time dependent characteristics of the grain size record suggests that there are two major shifts of dominant periodicities in the long term monsoonal cycles one occurring at about 0 8 ma bp and the other around 1 7 ma bp

re arrangement of atmospheric circulation at about 2 6 ma over northern china evidence from grain size records of loess palaeosol and red clay sequences abstract recent studies have shown that the red clay sequence underlying the quaternary loess of the chinese loess plateau is wind blown in origin continuous atmospheric dust deposition in the past 7 0 ma has been documented to address the wind system that transported the tertiary red clay two north south transects were studied in the chinese loess plateau one of the transects was designed to study spatial changes in grain size of the last glacial interglacial loess records and the other to observe particle changes of the tertiary red clay underlying the quaternary loess the loess transect consists of nine sections and the red clay transect of four sections analyses of closely spaced samples show that there is a strong southward decrease in grain size of both loess and palaeosol horizons of the late pleistocene which is consistent with the idea that the aeolian materials of the quaternary in the loess plateau are transported by the northerly winter monsoonal winds grain size distribution of the red clay sequences however does not show such a change from north to south along the red clay transect the particle size distribution is almost identical in the four sections suggesting that the winter monsoonal winds might have played a less important role in transporting the red clay material it is suggested that the red clay may have been transported by the westerlies from the dust source regions of northwestern china onto the loess plateau a remarkable re arrangement of atmospheric patterns at about 2 6 ma therefore has been recorded by the red clay loess shift it is speculated that this re arrangement of atmospheric patterns may have been caused by the onset of glaciation in the northern hemisphere

magnetic mineralogy of chinese loess and its significance summary the topmost 16 metres of the loess section at xifeng central chinese loess plateau which cover the last 128000 years consist of two palaeosol beds interlayered by a loess horizon hysteresis parameters frequency dependent field and temperaturedependent susceptibility show very similar and stable magnetic mineral constituents in both loess and palaeosol samples the concentration and grain size of magnetite maghaemite and haematite control the magnetic properties of chinese loess susceptibility and loess thickness are closely related to geographic position and present climate across the loess plateau the loess and palaeosol magnetic properties are largely controlled by the fine grained magnetite formed in various quantities and grain sizes under the influence of pedogenesis during variable palaeoclimatic conditions therefore regional and global palaeoclimatic development during the last 2 5 myr can be reconstructed from susceptibility records in the loess plateau

modeling the late pliocene global monsoon response to individual boundary conditions the late pliocene is a pre quaternary warming period compared to the preindustrial period here based on the updated prism4 pliocene research interpretation and synoptic mapping version 4 boundary conditions from the pliocene model intercomparison project phase 2 pliomip2 seven experiments are conducted to simulate the global monsoon in the late pliocene interglacial period and further investigate the impacts from changes in the individual boundary conditions by using the community earth system model cesm 1 0 4 the simulated late pliocene interglacial climate is generally warmer and wetter than the preindustrial period climate with an expanded monsoon domain particularly in north africa asia and australia the differences in topography vegetation and lakes outside of greenland and antarctica account for the greatest contribution to monsoon changes moreover orbital parameter variations further significantly affect monsoon domains and lead to significant fluctuations in monsoon precipitation and winds on the orbital scale and the changed magnitude is even larger than that between the late pliocene and preindustrial period when orbital forcing is not considered

dependence of near surface magnetic susceptibility on dust accumulation rate and precipitation on the chinese loess plateau magnetic susceptibility ms of surface sediment varies systematically across the loess plateau in central china decreasing exponentially from 200 10 8 m3 kg at the northern margin of the qinling shan to 30 10 8 m3 kg near the southern margin of the mu us desert ms correlates highly with loess median grain size r2 0 79 which decreases south southeastward across the plateau it also correlates with mean annual temperature mat and mean annual precipitation map r2 0 58 and 0 60 respectively and with their product mat map r2 0 83 which is considered a measure of potential pedogenic activity because regional isopleths depicting grain size and the primary meteorological parameters are nearly parallel it is difficult to determine their relative influence on ms a simple ms model based on the observed spatial variation in loess thickness permits quantitative assessment of the effect of the dust accumulation rate on the ms signal of surface sediment and isolates the likely role of climate in the production of magnetic minerals the model suggests that 84 of the loess ms variance is dictated by the diluting effect of dust and 10 11 is associated with meteorological factors primarily precipitation the observed and modeled relationships support hypotheses that attribute variations in ms in the loess paleosol succession to varying rates of dust deposition and in situ production of magnetic minerals in the accretionary soils both of which are controlled by monsoon climate

late cenozoic eolian deposition in the north pacific asian drying tibetan uplift and cooling of the northern hemisphere a newly constructed record of eolian dust accumulation from the central north pacific shows that dust deposition increased by an order of magnitude quite rapidly at 3 6 ma we associate this sudden drying with the uplift of at least the northern portion of the tibetan plateau shutting off the indian ocean moisture source to central and western china this ten fold increase in atmospheric dust loading appears to be associated with the 1 m y long shift toward heavy 18o values that occurred at 3 6 2 6 ma the dust grain size record of wind intensity begins its late cenozoic coarsening a million years before the drying event at 4 5 ma the northern hemisphere cooling that results in intensification of the subpolar westerly winds may have as its ultimate cause the drawdown of atmospheric co2 in the latest miocene and the early pliocene closing of the panamanian seaway

damped fluctuations in chinese loess grain size 1 the sediment record of the loess paleosol sequence in the chinese loess plateau reveals a strong relationship between grain size fluctuations and glacial interglacial cycles documented by marine oxygen isotope variations however on tectonic time scales differences between the loess paleosol grain size record and the marine oxygen isotope record can be identified analytical results from the baishui jingchuan and lingtai sections show that the grain size of eolian loess superimposed on a coarsening trend has two abrupt shifts at about 2 55 and 1 25 ma which are followed by significantly damped fluctuations in grain size this is different from the global oxygen isotope record which demonstrates higher amplitude variations since the late pliocene early pleistocene and lacks analogs of the abrupt shifts we propose that the progressive uplift of the tibetan plateau may have forced the regional environmental system across two thresholds at the late pliocene early pleistocene and the middle pleistocene respectively inducing two pulses of climatic and environmental changes over north western china which are superimposed on the global cooling trend and orbital climate changes

three large shifts in east asian monsoon circulation indicated by loess paleosol sequences in china and late cenozoic deposits in japan abstract correlations between loess paleosol sequences in china and late cenozoic deposits in japan suggest that the east asian monsoon circulation experienced three large shifts during the late cenozoic about 2 5 ma ago the onset of loess accumulation in north central china accompanied by a dramatic increase in eolian dust flux to the sea of japan marked a pronounced development of the east asian winter monsoon winds since ca 1 2 to 1 1 ma ago the obvious alternation of loess and paleosols in the chinese loess sequence with increased coarse grain size fraction in the loess units and higher than average magnetic susceptibility values in the paleosols and the repeated occurrence of interstratified marine clay layers in the osaka group of central japan indicate that the east asian monsoon circulation strengthened and the contrast between the summer and winter monsoons increased the paleosols of the chinese loess sequence were more strongly developed from ca 550 ka ago and loess started to accumulate in areas of the mid lower reaches of the yangtze river and in lake biwa of central japan from ca 450 ka ago reflecting more vigorous summer and winter monsoon circulations since ca 550 to 450 ka ago these large changes in east asian monsoon circulation were not only related to the changing solar radiation global glacial interglacial cycles and the changing configuration of land and sea but were also directly controlled by the uplift of the tibetan plateau

the nature origin and accumulation of loess abstract loess can be defined simply as a terrestrial clastic sediment composed predominantly of silt size particles which is formed essentially by the accumulation of wind blown dust there are three fundamental requirements for its formation 1 a sustained source of dust 2 adequate wind energy to transport the dust and 3 a suitable accumulation site most loess has been modified to some degree by local reworking bioturbation and syn depositional weathering but a process of loessification is not necessary for a dust deposit to qualify as loess the terms primary loess and secondary loess have previously been used to described wind deposited loess and redeposited loess respectively but it is more accurate to describe material reworked and redeposited by non aeolian processes as loess derived colluvium or loess derived alluvium during the quaternary loess formed in three main situations 1 mid continental shield areas beyond the limits of ice sheets periglacial loess 2 on the margins of high mountain ranges perimontane loess and 3 on the semi arid margins of some lowland deserts peridesert loess peridesert loess is relatively poorly developed partly due to the limited efficiency of silt generating mechanisms in low land deserts compared with glaciation but also important is the tendency in arid areas for dust to be dispersed over a wide area and to be rapidly reworked after deposition particularly in areas which experience frequent climatic changes the remarkably thick loess of china and central asia results from an unusual combination of conditions which has persisted for much of the last 2 3 million years namely rapid uplift of the tibetan plateau and surrounding mountain ranges high rates of sediment production and supply to adjacent basins a strong northwesterly and westerly wind regime and the existence of effective dust traps downwind of the source regions

stratigraphy of the middle eocene lower oligocene successions in northwestern and eastern jordan abstract rocks of eocene and oligocene age consisting mainly of carbonate ramp facies are widely distributed in jordan but no previous stratigraphic works have dealt with the eocene oligocene contact stratigraphic analysis based on field exploration and detailed lithostratigrapic and biostratigraphic preliminary data detected a major hiatus that separates the middle eocene lutetian from the early oligocene rupelian in the studied exposures in the wadi el ghadaf and ash shunah areas of jordan our results reveal that the planktonic foraminifera turborotalia cerroazulensis pseudohastigerina spp p18 zone and the calcareous nannoplankton ericsnia subdisticha np21 zone of early oligocene age were recorded immediately above the morozovelloides lehneri e11 zone and the discoaster tanii nodifer np16 zone indicating a period of non deposition as a result of tectonic activity and or sea level changes a correlative hiatus and time gap were also reported in different parts of the arabian and african plates which representing the contemporaneous paleo high areas the presence of the early oligocene shallow marine calcareous planktonic assemblages indicates that shallow shelves of the tethys ocean occupied the paleotopographic lows of jordan with deepening of the depositional basin toward the north

a multi proxy study of argentina loess marine oxygen isotope stage 4 and 5 environmental record from pedogenic hematite abstract a 12 m loess paleosol section la angostura from tafi del valle tucuman argentina was studied using rock magnetic measurements geochemistry mossbauer effect particle size and nd isotopes in order to elucidate changes in paleoenvironment at the site combining the results of these experiments allowed us to separate the effects of the two major controls parent material and pedogenesis on the measured parameters two behavior regimes were identified in the sediment 1 in the lower half of the section pedogenic processes though weak dominate the variation of the sediment s physical properties and 2 for the upper half of the section subtle changes in parent material control the majority of the measured parameters even those typically controlled by pedogenesis e g clay fraction applying rock magnetic mossbauer and bulk geochemistry measurements in concert we calculated an iron budget for the loess 80 of the iron in the sediment is in paramagnetic minerals 20 of the iron is in hematite 1 6 of the sediment s mass and 1 of the total iron is present as magnetite maghemite 0 1 of the sediment s total mass neither the pedogenic formation nor the depletion of ferrimagnetic material with increasing pedogenesis was consistently observed in this sediment throughout the entire section the concentration of hematite is argued to be sensitive to in situ alteration and it is further surmised to be sensitive to the available moisture at the site finally we present a curiosity within the error of our chronology the concentration of hematite seems to correlate with the coeval climate record from antarctica vostok it is possible that the sedimentary magnetic record from la angostura is a proxy for the strength of the south american summer monsoon

late weichselian depositional processes fluxes and sediment volumes on the margins of the norwegian sea 62 75 n abstract quaternary continental margin sedimentation in the norwegian greenland sea has been a response to a combination of tectonic oceanographic and glacial activity using geophysical survey data 6 5 khz side scan sonar and 3 5 khz penetration echo sounding in association with bathymetric datasets the magnitude and frequency of the main forms of margin sedimentation into the lofoten and norwegian basins of the norwegian sea during the late weichselian and holocene are estimated by comparing these geophysically determined estimates of sediment fluxes with numerically modelled ice sheet sediment delivery the role of ice sheets in shaping the processes acting on this margin is assessed sediment flux at the shelf edge during the late quaternary is dominated by ice sheet delivery of sediments focused at the mouths of fast flowing ice streams formed in bathymetric troughs interglacials are by contrast characterised by comparatively little sediment accumulation submarine fans at the margins of cross shelf troughs are major depocentres on this glacier influenced margin however occasional large scale failures of the continental slope account for approximately 75 of the basin sediment accumulation during the past 30 000 yr by eroding substantial quantities of pre quaternary deposits trough mouth fan and a combination of hemipelagic and glacimarine processes are responsible for the accumulation of the remaining 15 and 7 of basin sediments respectively

three dimensional tidal flow around headlands field measurements of tidal flow around a headland indicate secondary circulation induced by flow curvature the secondary flow defined to be the flow in the plane normal to the direction of the vertically averaged current is directed toward the headland near the bottom and seaward near the surface consistent with theoretical predictions the strength of the secondary flow varies from 5 to 15 of the streamwise flow it is strongest when the water column is stratified because of both the enhanced shear of the streamwise flow and the reduced frictional damping of the secondary flow the transverse exchange accomplished by the secondary flow significantly influences the structure of the streamwise flow causing a broadening of the transverse shear and changing the horizontal and vertical distributions of momentum it may also have a significant influence on horizontal dispersion in the vicinity of headlands

grain size of quartz as an indicator of winter monsoon strength on the loess plateau of central china during the last 130 000 yr the chinese loess paleosol sequence constitutes an important record of variations in asian monsoon climate over the past 2 4 myr magnetic susceptibility of loess and paleosols has been used as a proxy for summer monsoon intensity while median grain size has been regarded as a measure of the strength of winter monsoon winds that were responsible for most of the dust transport however median grain size is only an approximate index of winter monsoon strength because both paleosols and loess have been modified to various degrees by weathering processes that have produced pedogenic clay the quartz component of loess and paleosols is largely unaffected by weathering processes and therefore constitutes a more reliable proxy index of monsoon wind strength median grain size qmd and maximum grain size qmax values of monomineralic quartz isolated from the loess paleosol section at luochuan in the central loess plateau are characterized by two main intervals during the last ca 130 000 yr when these parameters were significantly greater than 9 and 85 m respectively and three main intervals when they were lower the data imply that the winter monsoon weakened during the intervals with low qmd and qmax values which coincide with marine oxygen isotope stages 5 3 and 1 and was strongest ca 67 000 and 20 000 yr ago during isotope stages 4 and 2 however both quartz grainsize records display second order high frequency high amplitude variations which are lacking in the magnetic susceptibility record that imply rapid and significant changes in atmospheric conditions that affect dust transport and deposition

a stratigraphic review of the eocene to miocene rock units in the al jabal al akhdar ne libya abstract this paper presents a revision of the eocene to miocene rock units of al jabal al akhdar northeast libya based on the study of several surface sections in the vicinity of benghazi and on earlier studies the gradual disappearance of deep water marine fauna during the early eocene apollonia formation combined with gradual appearances of large sized nummulitids and coarsening upwards of allochems during the middle eocene darnah formation indicate a shallowing up trend which continued to the end of the miocene upper eocene deposits are missing in the benghazi area the al bayda formation oligocene rests disconformably on the middle eocene darnah formation the lower part of the shahhat marl member lower member of the al bayda formation is detrital and contains reworked eocene nummulites together with in situ early oligocene n fichteli and n vascus the algal limestone upper member of the al bayda formation represents wilson s facies smf 4 5 and 6 cyclicity in this member is notable and it appears to be associated with the regressive and transgressive global fourth order cycles ta4 3 to ta4 4 the lower part of the al abraq formation is attributed to the transgressive global fourth order cycle ta4 5 and the upper part to cycle tb1 1 the lower and middle parts of the al faidiyah formation are attributed to the miocene transgressive cycles tb1 4 and tb1 5 with the upper part a result of sea level lowering related to cycle tb2 1 wilson s facies smf 7 and smf 8 typify this formation the presence of borelis melo melo indicates that the benghazi formation is middle miocene in age it is attributed to wilson s facies smf 7 and to the sea level lowering which corresponds to cycle tb2 6 the youngest studied rock unit is the wadi al qattarah formation late miocene which consists of oolitic packstone and grainstone in the lower part representing restricted platform conditions and is overlain by evaporites indicating restricted lagoon salina conditions

summer monsoon variations over the last 1 2 ma from the weathering of loess soil sequences in china the loess soil sequence in northern china contains a near continuous record of quaternary paleoclimate magnetic susceptibility and grain size have so far been the only proxies available to address the long term changes of the east asian paleomonsoon extending back to more than one million years in this study the ratio of cbd citrate bicarbonate dithionite extractable free fe2o3 fed a measure of iron liberated by chemical weathering versus the total fe2o3 available fet was measured on samples at 10 cm intervals taken from two loess sections deposited over the last 1 2 ma variations of this index are highly consistent with other pedological indicators but in addition provide a quantitative measurement of the degree of pedogenesis in the loess plateau since chemical weathering in the region mainly depends upon summer precipitation and temperature weathering intensity primarily reflects changes in the east asian summer monsoon the new proxy has been used to document a series of summer monsoon changes of global significance which are not necessarily recorded by magnetic susceptibility

nonstationary phase of the plio pleistocene asian monsoon paleoclimate records indicate that the strength of the asian summer monsoon is sensitive to orbital forcing at the obliquity and precession periods 41 000 and 23 000 years respectively and the extent of northern hemisphere glaciation over the past 2 6 million years the timing phase of strong monsoons has changed by 83 degrees in the precession and 124 degrees in the obliquity bands relative to the phase of maximum global ice volume inferred from the marine oxygen isotope record these results suggest that one or both of these systems is nonstationary relative to orbital forcing

magnetostratigraphy and paleoclimatic interpretation of a continuous 7 2 ma late cenozoic eolian sediments from the chinese loess plateau an almost 300m thick eolian sequence of late cenozoic sediments which includes 162 5m of quaternary loess paleosols and 126m of late tertiary eolian red clay from the central part of the chinese loess plateau was investigated to determine the magnetostratigraphy the results show that eolian dust accumulation and by inference the related east asia paleomonsoon had begun by 7 2ma as paleomonsoon are largely controlled by the tibetan plateau this implies that the plateau had reached some critical elevation by 7 2ma the section also documents a rapid increase in eolian dust accumulation in the late cenozoic at 3 2ma that is probably due to the influence of global ice volume on the east asian monsoon

northwestward decline of magnetic susceptibility for the red clay deposit in the chinese loess plateau 1 the loess paleosol red clay sequence in the chinese loess plateau has attracted attention for its potential in recording late cenozoic climatic changes over northern china although the details of the climatic implications of the proxies for example magnetic susceptibility and the reconstructed summer monsoon changes remain unclear here we report on a new section from baishui in gansu province and compare it with the lingtai and jingchuan sections by correlating the magnetic susceptibility from these sections we show that there is a clear systematic decrease of the magnetic susceptibility in the red clay deposits from the southeast lingtai section to the northwest baishui section this result suggests that the climatic parameters probably precipitation had a decreasing northwestward gradient during the red clay deposition this climatic pattern is similar to the present condition implying that the influence of the east asian summer monsoon on the chinese loess plateau has persisted from at least 6 ma

an evaluation of acoustic seabed classification techniques for marine biotope monitoring over broad scales 1 km2 and meso scales 10 m2 1 km2 abstract acoustic seabed classification is a useful tool for monitoring marine benthic habitats over broad scales 1 km 2 and meso scales 10 m 2 1 km 2 its utility in this context was evaluated using two approaches by describing natural changes in the temporal distribution of marine biotopes across the broad scale 4 km 2 and by attempting to detect specific experimentally induced changes to kelp dominated biotopes across the meso scale 100 m 2 for the first approach acoustic backscatter mosaics were constructed using sidescan sonar and multibeam echosounder data collected from church bay rathlin island northern ireland in 1999 2008 and 2009 the mosaics were manually segmented into acoustic facies which were ground truthed using a drop video camera biotopes were classified from the video by multivariate exploratory analysis and cross tabulated with the acoustic facies showing a positive correlation these results were integrated with bathymetric data to map the distribution of seven unique biotopes in church bay kappa analysis showed the biotope distribution was highly similar between the biotope maps possibly due to the stability of bedforms shaped by the tidal regime around rathlin island the greatest biotope change in this approach was represented by seasonal and annual changes in the growth of the seagrass zostera marina in the second approach sidescan sonar data were collected before and after the removal of 100 m 2 of kelp from three sites comparison of the data revealed no differences between the high resolution backscatter imagery it is concluded that acoustic seabed classification can be used to monitor change over broad and meso scales but not necessarily for all biotopes its success depends on the type of acoustic system employed and the biological characteristics of the target biotope

chinese loess and the paleomonsoon abstract this paper presents a general review of the recent research advances of the east asian paleomonsoon based mainly on studies of the loess soil sequences in the chinese loess plateau in the last 2 6 million years the paleomonsoonal history may be divided into about 166 events on a time scale of the earth s orbital variations during the last glacial period millenial scale oscillations of the monsoon system were prominent which can be fairly well correlated with the dansgaard oeschger cycles recognized in the greenland ice cores the monsoonal rainfall belt has experienced a wide repeated advance retreat change during the glacial interglacial cycles of the pleistocene both temporal and spatial changes of the monsoon system in the quaternary could have been linked closely to global ice volume variations

baoji type pedostratigraphic section loess plateau north central china abstract the baoji section is judged to be the most complete pedostratigraphic section on the loess plateau of north central china it is located about 5 km north of the city of baoji and consists of 37 paleosols formed during more than the last 2 5 ma it is designated here as the type pedostratigraphic section with formally named geosols following the rules of the north american commission on stratigraphic nomenclature geochronological control is based largely on magnetostratigraphy with the brunhes matuyama and gauss epochs and jaramillo and olduvai events clearly recognized the baoji geosols can be correlated with equivalent pedostratigraphic units throughout the loess plateau by a combination of magnetostratigraphy and character position and the association of the pedostratigraphic units within the quaternary succession the variation of the geosols suggests climatic cycles of varying intensity and duration but generally warmer and moister conditions when compared with the loess units that suggest colder and drier periods

sedimentary processes bedforms and facies associated with a coastal headland portland bill southern uk this investigation presents new findings on the sedimentary processes and deposits associated with a coastal headland in a mixed tide wave setting using data compilation bathymetric and sediment distribution maps collected field data side scan sonar and seabed sampling and sand transport modelling sand transport pathways are described a on the basis of coupled system seabed morphology sand distribution and b from bed shear stress and medium grained sand transport rate simulations the presence of a sequence of sedimentary deposits associated with a complex suite of bedforms and sedimentary facies within an overall framework of limited sediment supply represents a gradient in shear stress and sand transport towards the headland these sequences are observed on both sides of portland bill tending towards a symmetrical distribution the sedimentary facies distribution is combined with sand transport rates and maximum bed shear stress distribution to suggest a conceptual model for sand dispersal and deposit formation around headlands sand dispersal can be explained in terms of a headland associated eddy bedload convergent zone concept maximum bed shear stress is observed at the tip of the headland and is associated with bedrock exposed on the seabed the sequence of sedimentary deposits away from the headland is sandbanks shambles and portland banks sand gravel flats sand shoals adamant and west shoals and rippled sand sheets the banks lie in an area of very high bed shear stress u 0 08 m s 1 this is greater than that for other tidal sandbanks not associated with headlands bank formation is the result of the strong convergent transport component enhanced by the development of transient headland eddies the sandbanks are to some extent also morphologically controlled i e the portland bank is affected by the deep bathymetry to the west side of portland bill the principal characteristic of headland associated eddy bedload convergent zones is the development of bed shear stress convergent zones on both sides of the headland two conceptually distinct regions of sedimentary processes associated with the coastal headlands are recognised a an inner zone with increasing gradients in sand transport and bed shear stress towards the headland and b an outer zone in which sand transport is away from the headland associated with a decrease in the bed shear stress these zones merge into a bed shear stress sand bedload transport convergent zone which enhances the formation of sandbanks around headlands thus headland associated sedimentary deposits are a complex system compared with the occurrence of isolated sandbanks described elsewhere the identification of a sequence of deposits related to and extending much farther from the headland than previously supposed demonstrates that the tidal stirring concept of headland associated sandbanks may explain the formation of headland associated sandbanks however it ignores the presence of a suite of sedimentary deposits around such headlands the conceptual model proposed here provides a sedimentological perspective on the formation and occurrence of headland associated deposits including sandbanks

deep marine seabed erosion and gravel lags in the northwestern rockall trough north atlantic ocean a zone of active seabed erosion has been identified in the northwestern rockall trough using seismic reflection profiles and cores the region from george bligh bank to rockall bank has been subject to vigorous bottom current activity for at least the last 35 ma bottom currents originate from southward flowing north atlantic deep water in water depths of 500 2000 m acoustic character mapping reveals a zone of erosion extending over 8500 km 2 along the northwestern margins of the trough the erosion surface is characterized by an acoustically reflective seabed with occasional parallel to transparent reflectors these are the result of strong bottom currents exposing the underlying volcanic basement drift sequences and fan sediments the erosion surface is covered by a

sensitivity of climate to late cenozoic uplift in southern asia and the american west numerical experiments experiments with general circulation models with no mountains half mountains and full modern mountains show the sensitivity of atmospheric circulation patterns to progressive amounts of uplift the experiments were motivated by geologic evidence for large kilometer scale uplift in the late cenozoic in southern asia and the american west particularly within the last 10 m y in january the amplitude of the mid latitude upper tropospheric planetary waves increased with uplift and the low level winds were progressively blocked or diverted around the topographic features in july the progressive uplift caused monsoonlike circulations to develop in the vicinity of the colorado and tibetan plateaus atmospheric heating rates midtroposphere vertical motion and upper tropospheric planetary wave amplitudes varied approximately linearly with progressive uplift these results suggest that geologically recent kilometer scale uplift may have had climatic consequences comparable in magnitude and pattern to those of earlier stages of uplift comparison of the simulated climatic effects of uplift with the geologic evidence for late cenozoic climatic change especially for the last 10 m y is given in accompanying papers

the impact of regional uplift of the tibetan plateau on the asian monsoon climate abstract the climatic effect of tibetan plateau tp uplift is a hot topic in paleoclimate research in this paper the results of a set of numerical simulations are reported to analyze the impact of regional tp uplift on the asian monsoon climate the focus is on the impact of the regional uplift in the west and east parts on south asian summer monsoon as well as the impact of regional uplift on east asian winter monsoon the results show that the uplifts of the himalaya and the central southern tp have little effect on summer precipitation increasing over south asia whereas the further uplifts of the tp in the west and east parts including the uplifts of both the eastern and western tp have important effects on the strengthening of the south asian summer monsoon the uplift of the eastern tp leads to low level cyclonic circulation anomalies appearing in the bay of bengal accompanied by anomalous upward movement and in turn precipitation markedly increases in the bay of bengal whereas the uplift of the western tp produces low level cyclonic circulation anomalies around the uplifted region and intensifies the moisture transport from the tropical ocean and thus precipitation further increases in south asia especially in the northern arabian sea the strengthened summer monsoon in south asia is coupled with the intensification in diabatic heating and moisture convergence for the east asian winter monsoon the intensification of winter monsoon winds is related more to the regional uplifts than the uplift of the whole tp the uplifts of the central southern tp the northern tp and other northern topography have greater effects on the strengthening of the winter monsoon winds

pedostratigraphy and paleomagnetism of a 7 0 ma eolian loess red clay sequence at lingtai loess plateau north central china and the implications for paleomonsoon evolution abstract a 305 m thick loess red clay sequence was discovered recently at lingtai which is located in the middle part of the chinese loess plateau it consists of a complete pleistocene loess soil sequence with a thickness of about 175 m and 130 m of tertiary red clay deposits the red clay sequence at lingtai is the thickest one presently known in the loess plateau field observations show that the lingtai red clay contains over 110 couplets of pedogenic b horizons and horizontal carbonate nodule horizons and that it can be regarded as an extremely thick soil complex paleomagnetic studies of 680 samples suggest that the basal age of the lingtai loess red clay sequence is about 7 05 ma grain size analysis of samples taken at 3 3 cm intervals indicates that the red clay has the same sedimentological characteristics as those observed in the loess thus suggesting a wind blown origin of the tertiary red clay and continuous atmospheric dust deposition in the loess plateau during the last 7 05 ma the pedogenic characteristics of the paleosols within the pleistocene loess and the b horizons in the red clay suggest that the east asia summer monsoon in the latest miocene may have already been slightly stronger than that during the holocene this implies that at about 7 5 ma bp the tibetan plateau could have been uplifted to a critical height in maintaining the east asia summer monsoon system observations of the loess red clay sequence also suggest that the long term changes in the east asia summer monsoon strength have been nonlinear since the latest miocene

a coupled environmental system formed at about 2 5 ma in east asia abstract the somewhat abrupt commencement of loess deposition on a large scale in north central china is palaeomagnetically measured at about 2 5 ma the formation of the dynamical conditions responsible for windblown loess processes implies a reorganization of the atmospheric circulation over eastern asia it is speculated that at that time the accelerated uplift of the tibetan plateau had reached a threshold height giving rise to the intensification and northward shift of the siberian high and deepening of the cyclone in the lee of the tibetan plateau the uplift of tibet and the resulting reorganization of atmospheric circulation at about 2 5 ma would initiate a coupled environmental system tibetan plateau inland desert loess plateau in eastern asia that could be a key system in understanding the onset of glaciation in northern hemisphere and climatic change in the quaternary the climatic shift from near continuous warm condition before 2 5 ma to frequent and chaotic fluctuations after is speculated to be triggered to a significant extent by the uplift of the tibetan plateau an orography cold surge albedo temperature feedback mechanism is developed in explaining the harsher climate over east asia during glacial time and is thought to be one of the major contributors in promoting glacial development on the globe

late cenozoic environmental changes and uplift on the northern side of the central himalaya a reappraisal from field data abstract the extreme view that uplift of the tibetan plateau and the adjacent himalayan range occurred mainly during the quaternary cannot be further sustained as discussed in the light of available field data palaeobiogeography sedimentary environments and tectonic evidence comparison with other independent sources such as the loess records of central china and data on the post orogenic sedimentation and geochronology of the himalayan and south asian oceanic fans shows that the tibetan plateau certainly reached an elevation close to its present one before the climatic changes of the quaternary as such this elevated himalaya tibet ensemble was probably one of the major causes of the late tertiary general cooling of the northern hemisphere as suggested by global modelling of climate palaeoenvironmental changes observed during the quaternary were certainly governed by orbital parameters yet they were also regionally influenced by both the uplift of the greater himalaya with respect to tibet and by the disruption of the northern himalaya and south tibet into horsts and grabens uncertainty still surrounds the periods during which critical elevations were achieved to induce both the monsoon circulation and e w extension

correlation of sidescan backscatter with grain size distribution of surficial seabed sediments the dependence of acoustic backscatter on sediment grain size distribution is examined using dual frequency 100 and 410 khz sidescan sonar and 22 sediment grab samples from the loch linnhe artificial reef site on the west coast of scotland the sidescan data were processed to remove an empirically estimated average grazing angle dependence on backscatter the processed data were analysed by forming histograms of pixels extracted from a 20 m 2 box around each ground truth site a positive correlation r 0 73 between mean backscatter intensity and mean grain size was obtained i e the coarsest samples had the brightest backscatter a positive correlation r 0 59 was also found between the standard deviations of the backscatter and grain size distributions i e poorly sorted sediments gave the most variable backscatter the performance of the sidescan data was compared to results from a co incident single beam echo sounder roxann survey the roxann roughness index e1 compared well with the sidescan whilst the roxann hardness index e2 did not this may be due to a physical link between the acoustic measures the comparison showed the sidescan to have delivered a significantly higher resolution image of the seabed for a similar amount of ship time imaging of the artificial reef modules themselves was found to be frequency dependent d 2004 elsevier b v all rights reserved

fluvial deposition on periodically emergent shelves in the quaternary example records from the shelf around britain abstract this paper explores the record of fluvial sedimentation on continental shelves during the quaternary in areas that are shallow seas in the present day during episodes of higher global ice volume than the present which account for a large proportion of quaternary time large parts of the shelf were dry land drained by rivers the latter included extensions of still existing rivers as well as complete systems that are now lost beneath holocene interglacial seas in areas where extensive epi continental seas have formed during interglacials there is considerable potential for large areas of submerged fluvial sediments to survive on the shelf providing evidence of former river courses and for the evolution of these rivers during the late cenozoic examples of now submerged fluvial systems from the shelf to the south and east of britain are examined submerged terraces of the extended river thames have been mapped beneath the southern north sea in the area offshore from the thames estuary further offshore however all evidence of former sub aerial drainage during the last glacial has been removed by erosion and it is uncertain whether the thames and rhine which would have joined in this area flowed northwards to the north sea or southwards to the english channel although the latter is regarded as more likely the rhine thames is just one example of the very large system that would have existed only during low stands their concentrated freshwater output having a potentially significant effect on ocean systems

the role of time lapse bathymetric surveys in assessing morphological change at shipwreck sites abstract data from time lapse single beam and multi beam bathymetric surveys are used to assess the rate and scale of morphological change at shipwreck sites caused by anthropogenic forcing the technique is illustrated by characterizing changes in wreck site morphology over two sites located on the east coast of ireland the drogheda boat site on the river boyne and the arklow bank site in the irish sea results indicate that repeated bathymetric surveys accurately and rapidly capture morphological change with time lapse accretion erosion models indicating possible erosion rates of up to 0 04 m per day and accretion rates of 0 36 m per day at dynamic riverine and marine sites in response to external triggers these data are valuable in understanding site formation processes at fully submerged archaeological sites and in the derivation of high resolution site formation models

the onset of extensive loess deposition around the g m boundary in china and its palaeoclimatic implications abstract in northern china the red clay loess contact is palaeomagnetically defined at about the gauss matuyama boundary the red clay formation has recently been proposed as mostly of wind blown origin and can be interpreted as having been formed under climatic conditions of continuous warmth punctuated by small amplitude oscillations the shift from red clay development to extensive loess deposition exhibits a 3 fold abrupt increase in aeolian dust deposition rate and marks the beginning of frequent and chaotic climatic fluctuations this event implies a large scale reorganization of the atmospheric circulation over east asia in particular the northward shift and intensification of the siberian high which may have resulted from a dramatic uplift of the tibetan plateau compared to another climatic shift recorded by the chinese loess deposits which occurred at about the upper boundary of the olduvai subchron the red clay loess shift is much more pronounced and recognizable in the field it appears that in regional stratigraphic studies the g m magnetic reversal has a better correlation potential than the upper olduvai

mean currents and sediment transport in a rip channel measurements of hydrodynamics and suspended sediment transport were carried out along a cross shore transect in a rip channel a tidally induced threshold for rip flow initiation was found this threshold depended upon the degree of wave energy dissipation and could be identified through a critical value of the ratio of significant wave height to water depth s in the rip neck with normally incident waves rip current velocities were well correlated with velocities predicted from a simple model involving the onshore mass transport in asymmetric breaking waves crossing the bar hydrodynamics and sediment transport were tidally modulated with strong offshore directed rip currents and associated offshore sediment transport due to the mean flow at low tide at high tide when the rip was inactive the tendency was for weak onshore directed mean flows and or oscillatory incident waves transporting smaller amounts of sediment landward the net result was a gradual lowering of the topographic relief along the rip channel with net deposition seaward of the rip outside the surf zone transport was mainly landward due to oscillatory incident waves