The Red Earth deposit around Xining, northeastern Tibetan Plateau, has beenstudied in terms of soil micro-structure, grain-size distribution, major- and trace-elementchemistry and magne-tostratigraphy. Field investiga...The Red Earth deposit around Xining, northeastern Tibetan Plateau, has beenstudied in terms of soil micro-structure, grain-size distribution, major- and trace-elementchemistry and magne-tostratigraphy. Field investigations indicate that the Red Earth sequenceconsists of 25 visually definable yellow-brown and weakly-developed soils interbedded with reddishstrongly-developed soils, and has a similar structure to the aeolian Red Clay deposit on the ChineseLoess Plateau. Grain-size analysis shows that the Red Earth deposit is very fine-grained with anegligible sand fraction ( 】 63 μm). Thin-section observations under light microscopy show that thedeposit has a clayey texture and the coarse fraction ( 】 10 μm) mainly consists of quartz,feldspar and micas. Pyroxene and hornblende were also observed. This mineralogical composition ofthe coarse fraction is similar to that of the Quaternary loess. In addition, all of the mineralgrains are semi angular semi-angular and are generally finer than 63 μm. There is a good agreementbetween the major and minor trace element chemistry of loess-soil units and the Red Earth deposit.The REE distributions of the loess-soil and the Red Earth deposit are similar in shape, withenriched LREE and fairly flat HREE profiles and a clear negative Eu anomaly. The geochemicalcharacteristics of the Red Earth deposit are also identical to those of upper continental crust,thus indicating a wind-blown origin. Magnetostratigraphic investigation shows that onset of the RedEarth deposition predates 11.4 Ma BP (13.6 Ma at a nearby site). The distribution of the reportedMiocene aeolian loess at Qin''an of the Loess Plateau is still unknown. Our results indicate thatthis aeolian deposit had extended to the northeastern Tibetan Plateau by at least the middleMiocene. The similarity of the element geochemistry between the Red Earth deposit and the overlyingloess shows that they may have similar sources and dynamic transport system, and may indicate thatthe aridification of the interior of the Tibetan展开更多
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.40325007 and 40121303)the National Basic Research Program of China(No.2004CBT20201)+1 种基金the Outstanding Overseas Chinese Scholars Fund of the Chinese Academy of Sciences(Grant No.2003-1-7)CAS(Grant No.KZCX2-SW-118).
文摘The Red Earth deposit around Xining, northeastern Tibetan Plateau, has beenstudied in terms of soil micro-structure, grain-size distribution, major- and trace-elementchemistry and magne-tostratigraphy. Field investigations indicate that the Red Earth sequenceconsists of 25 visually definable yellow-brown and weakly-developed soils interbedded with reddishstrongly-developed soils, and has a similar structure to the aeolian Red Clay deposit on the ChineseLoess Plateau. Grain-size analysis shows that the Red Earth deposit is very fine-grained with anegligible sand fraction ( 】 63 μm). Thin-section observations under light microscopy show that thedeposit has a clayey texture and the coarse fraction ( 】 10 μm) mainly consists of quartz,feldspar and micas. Pyroxene and hornblende were also observed. This mineralogical composition ofthe coarse fraction is similar to that of the Quaternary loess. In addition, all of the mineralgrains are semi angular semi-angular and are generally finer than 63 μm. There is a good agreementbetween the major and minor trace element chemistry of loess-soil units and the Red Earth deposit.The REE distributions of the loess-soil and the Red Earth deposit are similar in shape, withenriched LREE and fairly flat HREE profiles and a clear negative Eu anomaly. The geochemicalcharacteristics of the Red Earth deposit are also identical to those of upper continental crust,thus indicating a wind-blown origin. Magnetostratigraphic investigation shows that onset of the RedEarth deposition predates 11.4 Ma BP (13.6 Ma at a nearby site). The distribution of the reportedMiocene aeolian loess at Qin''an of the Loess Plateau is still unknown. Our results indicate thatthis aeolian deposit had extended to the northeastern Tibetan Plateau by at least the middleMiocene. The similarity of the element geochemistry between the Red Earth deposit and the overlyingloess shows that they may have similar sources and dynamic transport system, and may indicate thatthe aridification of the interior of the Tibetan
