『Abstract
We analyzed sediment from Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 1144
in the northern South China Sea to examine the weathering response
of SE Asia to the strengthening of the East Asian Monsoon (EAM)
since 14 ka. Our high-resolution record highlights the decoupling
between continental chemical weathering, physical erosion and
summer monsoon intensity. Mass accumulation rates, Ti/Ca, K/Rb,
hematite/goethite and 87Sr/86Sr show sharp
excursions from 11 to 8 ka, peaking at 10 ka. Clay minerals show
a shorter-lived response with a higher kaolinite/(illite + chlorite)
ratio at 10.7-9.5 ka. However, not all proxies show a clear response
to environmental changes. Magnetic susceptibility rises sharply
between 12 and 11 ka. Grain-size becomes finer from 14 to 10 ka
and then coarsens until 〜7 ka, but is probably controlled by bottom
current flow and sealevel. Sr and Nd isotopes show that material
is dominantly eroded from Taiwan with a lesser flux from Luzon,
while clay mineralogy suggests that the primary sources during
the Early Holocene were reworked via the shelf in the Taiwan Strait,
rather than directly from Taiwan. Erosion was enhanced during
monsoon strengthening and caused reworking of chemically weathered
Pleistocene sediment largely from the now flooded Taiwan Strait,
which was transgressed by 〜8 ka, cutting off supply to the deep-water
slope. None of the proxies shows an erosional response lasting
until 〜6 ka, when speleothem oxygen isotope records indicate the
start of monsoon weakening. Although more weathered sediments
were deposited from 11 to 8 ka when the monsoon was strong these
are reworked and represent more weathering during the last glacial
maximum (LGM) when the summer monsoon was weaker but the shelves
were exposed.
Keywords: Chemical weathering; Geochemistry; Clay mineralogy;
Isotopes; East Asian monsoon; south China Sea』
1. Introduction
2. Erosion and weathering proxies
3. Analytical methods
4. Results
5. Discussion
5.1. Provenance of the sediments
5.2. Effects of sealevel change
5.3. Effects of bottom currents
5.4. Effects of monsoon variation
5.5. Unresponsive proxies
6. Conclusions
Acknowledgments
References