NOAA/WDS Paleoclimatology - Ding et al. 1999 Lingtai Loess Stratigraphy Data

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.

本归档古气候学研究数据集可从美国国家海洋和大气管理局（National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA）下属的国家环境信息中心（National Centers for Environmental Information, NCEI）获取，该数据集隶属于古气候学世界数据服务中心（World Data Service for Paleoclimatology, WDS）。该NCEI关联研究的类型为黄土与风成尘埃。数据集包含东亚中国区域内的黄土及古土壤相关参数。数据的时间覆盖范围为距今7000000年至0年（BP，采用日历年作为计量单位）。有关参数与研究区域的详细信息，请参阅元数据。使用本数据集时，请引用该研究。