Sedimentology on 19 cores from the South China Sea

• Main Authors: Wang, Luejiang, Sarnthein, Michael, Erlenkeuser, Helmut, Grimalt, Joan O, Grootes, Pieter Meiert, Heilig, S, Ivanova, Elena V, Kienast, Markus, Pelejero, Carles, Pflaumann, Uwe
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 1999
• Subjects: Giant box corer; GIK17925-3; GIK17928-3; GIK17931-2; GIK17932-2; GIK17933-3; GIK17937-2; GIK17938-2; GIK17939-1; GIK17939-2; GIK17940-1; GIK17940-2; GIK17950-2; GIK17954-2; GIK17955-2; GIK17956-2; GIK17957-2; GIK17961-2; GIK17964-2; GIK17964-3; GKG; Gravity corer (Kiel type); KOL; MONITOR MONSUN; Piston corer (Kiel type); SL; SO95; Sonne; South China Sea; Greenland; Indian; Kol’; Sunda; Dansgaard-Oeschger events; Greenland ice cores; Planktonic foraminifera
• Online Access: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.770646; https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.770646

Based on the study of 10 sediment cores and 40 core-top samples from the South China Sea (SCS) we obtained proxy records of past changes in East Asian monsoon climate on millennial to bidecadal time scales over the last 220,000 years. Climate proxies such as global sea level, estimates of paleotemperature, salinity, and nutrients in surface water, ventilation of deep water, paleowind strength, freshwater lids, fluvial and/or eolian sediment supply, and sediment winnowing on the sea floor were derived from planktonic and benthic stable-isotope records, the distribution of siliciclastic grain sizes, planktonic foraminifera species, and the UK37 biomarker index. Four cores were AMS-14C-dated. Two different regimes of monsoon circulation dominated the SCS over the last two glacial cycles, being linked to the minima and maxima of Northern Hemisphere solar insolation. (1) Glacial stages led to a stable estuarine circulation and a strong O2-minimum layer via a closure of the Borneo sea strait. Strong northeast monsoon and cool surface water occurred during winter, in part fed by an inflow from the north tip of Luzon. In contrast, summer temperatures were as high as during interglacials, hence the seasonality was strong. Low wetness in subtropical South China was opposed to large river input from the emerged Sunda shelf, serving as glacial refuge for tropical forest. (2) Interglacials were marked by a strong inflow of warm water via the Borneo sea strait, intense upwelling southeast of Vietnam and continental wetness in China during summer, weaker northeast monsoon and high sea-surface temperatures during winter, i.e. low seasonality. On top of the long-term variations we found millennial- to centennial-scale cold and dry, warm and humid spells during the Holocene, glacial Terminations I and II, and Stage 3. The spells were coeval with published variations in the Indian monsoon and probably, with the cold Heinrich and warm Dansgaard-Oeschger events recorded in Greenland ice cores, thus suggesting global climatic ...