Sediment provenance in the Northern South China Sea since the Late Miocene

Zhe Hu; Baoqi Huang; Li Geng; Na Wang

doi:10.1515/geo-2022-0454

Open Access Published by De Gruyter Open Access December 31, 2022

Sediment provenance in the Northern South China Sea since the Late Miocene

Zhe Hu , Baoqi Huang , Li Geng and Na Wang

From the journal Open Geosciences

https://doi.org/10.1515/geo-2022-0454

Abstract

The timing of the onset of Taiwan sediment input to the northern South China Sea (SCS) is still controversial even though many provenance proxies had been used. To analyze the change of Taiwan input since the Late Miocene (11.63–0 Ma), we applied the major-element-based proxies R _AK and R _KCN, combined with the published clay mineral and Sr–Nd isotope data, to study the sediment provenance near the northern SCS slope. The results show that significant Taiwan sediment input began at ∼6.5 Ma in the Late Miocene, consistent with the timing of Taiwan uplift. Moreover, Pearl River input increased after ∼3.6 Ma, corresponding to the sea level fall caused by the ice sheet expansion in the Northern Hemisphere. The Taiwan input increased during the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT, 1.25–0.7 Ma) because of the Northern Pacific Intermediate Water expansion. After the MPT, the Pearl River input re-increased in response to the lowered sea level in glacials. In general, tectonic activities such as the Taiwan uplift control the sediment provenance in the northern SCS from 6.5 to 3.6 Ma. After 3.6 Ma, as the weathering regime of Taiwan sediment became more stable, climate change became a more important factor in influencing sediment provenance.

Keywords: South China Sea; source-to-sink; Late Miocene; Taiwan input; sea level

1 Introduction

Variations of sedimentary sources and transport processes will profoundly affect the composition of deep-sea sediments [1]. Marginal seas represent a critical component of the global source-to-sink system and they are ideal sites to investigate land–sea interactions, because the sediment budget and transport pathways can be more easily defined quantitatively in these areas [2,3]. As the rivers in coastal region of SE-Asia provide the largest portion of global sediment discharge to the ocean [4], the South China Sea (SCS) offers an excellent case for the source-to-sink study among the global marginal seas [5].

In previous studies, the sedimentation rates, clay minerals, trace elements, and Sr–Nd isotopes have been used to trace the onset timing of the Taiwan input, and the results mainly range from 5 to 3 Ma [6–8]. However, the uplift of the primordial Taiwan Island began at 6.5 Ma in the Late Miocene [9,10], and the denudation process began immediately after the uplift [11]. Taiwan-sourced sediments were also found in the foreland and forearc basins around the Taiwan island at ∼6.5 Ma [12–15]. Moreover, the water mass that transports Taiwan’s materials to the northern deep water area of the SCS, i.e., the North Pacific Deep Water (NPDW), started to enter the SCS at 23.8 Ma [16,17]. The South China Sea Brunch of Kuroshio (SCSBK) and Northern Pacific Intermediate Water (NPIW) could also be the possible pathways of the Taiwan sediment since the Late Miocene due to their westward flow direction [18,19]. Thus, the necessary conditions for the denudation and transportation of Taiwan-sourced sediments were already in existence at 6.5 Ma, and Taiwan input should have been seen in the northern SCS since the Late Miocene. The seismic data and multibeam bathymetry proved that more Taiwan sediment was transported to the northern SCS basin by intensified bottom currents since ∼6.5 Ma [20].

It is difficult to apply conventional sediment provenance proxies to the northern SCS, since the radiogenic Nd isotope (ε _Nd) values of the Taiwan and the Pearl River inputs are too close to be distinguished [1], and the clay minerals are more likely to indicate changes in fine-grained, rather than bulk, sediment provenance [21]. Therefore, a proxy that can not only distinguish the Pearl River and Taiwan sources, but also represent the bulk sediment could be more effective to trace the variations of sediment provenance in the northern SCS.

The recently developed major element-based provenance proxies (R _AK and R _KCN) [22] meet these two requirements. The chemical weathering in the Pearl River basin was much stronger than Taiwan today [1], and the weathering intensity of Taiwan sediment was always insufficient since 6.5 Ma because of the strong physical erosion [9,23,24]. The R _AK and R _KCN are the proxies of the weathering trend, which can be analyzed by correlation coefficients between the chemical index of alteration (CIA), K^*, and CN^*. The CIA is defined as Al₂O₃/(Al₂O₃ + CaO^* + Na₂O + K₂O) × 100, where CaO^* represents the CaO in the silicate fraction [25], the correction for phosphate phases is straightforward by CaO^* = CaO−3.33P₂O₅ assuming that all P₂O₅ is associated with apatite [26,27]. The K^* is defined as K₂O/(Al₂O₃ + CaO^* + Na₂O + K₂O) × 100, the CN^* is defined as (CaO^* + Na₂O)/(Al₂O₃ + CaO^* + Na₂O + K₂O) × 100 [22]. The R _AK is the Pearson’s r between CIA and K^*, and R _KCN is the Pearson’s r between K^* and CN^* [22]. Here we use the data of IODP Site U1501 and ODP Sites 1144, 1146, and 1148 to calculate the changes of R _AK and R _KCN since the Late Miocene. Together with the data of oxygen isotopes, Sr–Nd isotopes, clay minerals, and grain size, we analyzed the changes of provenance assemblages in the northern SCS since the Late Miocene (11.63 Ma). We also reassess the influence of tectonics and climate change on the sediment composition of the northern SCS.

2 Regional setting

The SCS is the largest marginal sea in the western Pacific, while the latitude range spans from 0° to 23°N, the wind and precipitation patterns are dominated by the East Asian Monsoon [1]. Given the small flux of aeolian dust, most of the sediments in the northern SCS are transported by the fluvial system [1,28]. Since the Quaternary, the Pearl River and Taiwan have become the principal sediment sources to the northern SCS (Figure 1) [34,35]. The relative supply of Taiwan and the Pearl River sediment is mainly controlled by the ocean current pattern and climate change [36].

Figure 1

Bathymetric map and the location of sites in the SCS and North Pacific. Sites labeled with red-filled circles are studied in this work. Sites labeled with green-filled circles are those with published data. The annual sediment discharges of potential sources are indicated by red arrows [4]. SCSBK: South China Sea Branch of Kuroshio (grey arrow) [19,29]; NPIW: North Pacific Intermediate Water (purple arrow) [18]; SCSIW: South China Sea Intermediate Water [30]; NPDW: North Pacific Deep Water (yellow arrow) [31,32]. EASM: East Asian summer monsoon; and EAWM: East Asian winter monsoon [33].

Since the SCS formed in the early Oligocene, its principal fluvial sediment provenance has changed over time. During the Oligocene, the main source of the northern SCS was the central Vietnam [37]. During most of the Miocene, Luzon was still far to the south, and Taiwan had not yet significantly risen above the sea surface, while the Pearl River became the primary source [21,37,38]. In consideration of the two end members including the Pearl River and Taiwan in modern times, the onset of Taiwan input should be the most important change of sediment provenance in the northern SCS since the Miocene.

The sediment particles are transported both alongslope and downslope to the northern slope by oceanic currents [39]. Along the slope, there are four contour currents at different water depths (Figure 1): the westward SCSBK (<500 m) [40], the westward NPIW (around 300–800 m) [41,42], the eastward South China Sea Intermediate Water (SCSIW, around 500–1,500 m) [30], and the westward NPDW (>2,000 m) [43,44]. In addition, the downslope gravity flows may transport a lot of coarse deposits from shelf to basin around the Pearl River Canyon, formed the mass-transport deposits or turbidites [45,46]. The westward contour currents always bring the particles from Taiwan or Dongsha to the shelf, upper slope, and basin, while the eastward current SCSIW and gravity flows are in favor of the transportation from the South China [22,39]. The modern sediment transport pattern in the SCS could exist at least since the Late Miocene (11.63 Ma) [31,47].

3 Materials and methods

3.1 IODP Site U1501 and samples

We focus on sediments recovered from the continental slope of the northern SCS (Figure 1). IODP Site U1501 (18°53.09′N, 115°45.95′E, water depth: 2,846 m) is situated on the west side of the Pearl River Canyon [48,49] and the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Sites 1144 (20°3.18′N, 117°25.14′E, water depth: 2,037 m), 1146 (19°27.40′N, 116°16.37′E, water depth: 2,092 m), and 1148 (18°50.17′N, 116°33.94′E, water depth: 3,294 m) are located on the east side [5]. Thirty-one samples were selected from IODP Site U1501 at 20 cm intervals between 99.29 and 92.86 m, which spans from 5.8 to 5.2 Ma [48]; all samples were analyzed for major elemental concentrations on inductively coupled plasma-optical emission (ICP-OES). Moreover, the major elemental data of the 46 samples of ODP Sites 1144 (1–0 Ma) [23], 202 samples of ODP Site 1146 (11.63–0 Ma) [6], and 52 samples of ODP Site 1148 (11.63–0 Ma) [50] are compiled from the literature.

3.2 ICP-OES analysis

The sediment samples from IODP Site U1501 were ground to 200 mesh. Each sample was dried, weighed with an accuracy 100 mg, placed in a centrifuge tube. Detrital silicates in sediments were extracted following a sequential leaching procedure in four steps [51,52]. First, a CH₃COONH₄/CH₃COOH buffer solution at pH 4.5 was added to remove carbonates, then ultrasonic cleaning was done at 60°C for 3 h. Second, the organic matter was removed by 10% H₂O₂ at 60°C in an ultrasonic bath for 1 h repeated three times. Third, the silicate residues were dissolved using a concentrated HF + HNO₃ mixture on a hot plate at 130°C for 12 h, then in a HNO₃ + HCl mixture at 130°C for 12 h. Finally, samples were diluted with 2% HNO₃ for major element measurement. The major elements were measured on a Spectro Blue Sop ICP-OES at Peking University. The external reproducibility for the elements (Na, Mg, Al, K, Ca, P, and Ti) in silicate residues was ±5%.

3.3 Sediment provenance proxies

The provenance proxies R _AK and R _KCN are developed from the CIA based on major element contents, which can indicate the direction of the weathering trend [22]. The CIA is defined as Al₂O₃/(Al₂O₃ + CaO^* + Na₂O + K₂O) × 100, and CaO^* was replaced by CaO−3.33P₂O₅ because CaO/Na₂O ratio was <1 in all samples [26,27]. The values of R _AK and R _KCN are calculated for every continuous 10 points [22]. Pearl River sourced sediments typically have negative values of R _AK and near-zero values of R _KCN due to the more intense chemical weathering and leaching of potassium [1]. In contrast, Taiwan sourced sediments have positive values of R _AK and negative values of R _KCN, because the physical erosion is stronger relative to chemical weathering, and the potassium-rich clay minerals such as illite are abundant [1].

4 Results

In the A-CN-K triangle diagram (Figure 2), the major element contents of ODP Sites 1146 and 1148 are closer to the Pearl River catchment before 6.5 Ma, but fall clearly within the Taiwan region after 6.5 Ma (Figure 2). In addition, the geochemical space spanned by the sediments from ODP Site 1144 since 1 Ma is also near the Taiwan source range. In contrast, the major element contents of IODP Site U1501 (5.8–5.2 Ma) are almost all within the Pearl River range. In addition, the data of elemental content including Al₂O₃, K₂O, Na₂O, CaO, and P₂O₅ can be accessed in the supplementary data.

$Figure 2 Major element concentrations in the northern SCS drilling sites since the Late Miocene. (a) Major elemental Al2O3–(CaO + Na2O)–K2O(A-CN-K) diagram of bulk and clay-fraction sediments in surrounding fluvial drainage systems [1], IODP Site U1501 (this study), and ODP Sites 1144 [23], 1146 [6], and 1148 [50]. (b) Correlations of the CIA with K2O/(CaO* + Na2O) molar ratio of argillaceous sediments in the Pearl River, Taiwan, Luzon, IODP Site U1501, and ODP Sites 1144, 1146, and 1148.$

Figure 2

Major element concentrations in the northern SCS drilling sites since the Late Miocene. (a) Major elemental Al₂O₃–(CaO + Na₂O)–K₂O(A-CN-K) diagram of bulk and clay-fraction sediments in surrounding fluvial drainage systems [1], IODP Site U1501 (this study), and ODP Sites 1144 [23], 1146 [6], and 1148 [50]. (b) Correlations of the CIA with K₂O/(CaO^* + Na₂O) molar ratio of argillaceous sediments in the Pearl River, Taiwan, Luzon, IODP Site U1501, and ODP Sites 1144, 1146, and 1148.

We used the element data of IODP Site U1501 and ODP Sites 1144, 1146, and 1148 to calculate the provenance indicators R _AK and R _KCN. The results showed that the materials of IODP Site U1501 mainly came from the Pearl River during most of the time from 5.7 to 5.3 Ma, except for a brief period that was dominated by Taiwan input around 5.55–5.52 Ma (Figure 3d). Among the other three sites, the sediments of ODP Site 1144 were predominantly Taiwan-derived from 0 to 1 Ma (Figure 3c); to the west ODP Site 1146 shows clear signs of Taiwan input around 6.5, 5.9–5.7, 5.5–5.4, 4.9–4.6, 3.8–3.2, 1.4, and 1.2–0.8 Ma (Figures 3b and 4a); and the deeper ODP Site 1148 exhibits Taiwan-derived input around 6 and 1.3–1 Ma (Figures 3b and 4a).

Figure 3

Major elemental provenance proxies R _AK and R _KCN values since the Late Miocene from: (a) ODP Site 1146, (b) ODP Site 1148, (c) ODP Site 1144 [22], and (d) IODP Site U1501. The red bars mark the time intervals with significant Taiwan sediment input. The red line highlights the start of Taiwan orogen [9].

Figure 4

Temporal evolution in proxies linked to chemical weathering intensity and climate indices since the Late Miocene. (a) R _AK values of IODP Site U1501 and ODP Sites 1144, 1146, and 1148. (b) Global [53] and Pearl River Mouth Basin eustasy sea level curve [54]. (c) Percentages of quartz from IODP Sites U1499, U1501, and U1505 [55] and relative quartz from ODP Sites 1146 and 1148 [38,56]. (d) Mean grain size of bulk sediment from ODP Sites 1146 and 1148 [38,57]. (e) Kaolinite/illite values from ODP Sites 1146 and 1148 [24,58]. (f) δ¹⁸O_PF and CIA of ODP Site 1146 [6,59,60] and ODP Site 1148 [23,61]. The grey bar highlights the uncoordinated variation interval between the CIA and δ¹⁸O values. The red line highlights the start of Taiwan orogen [9].

5 Discussion

5.1 Negligible aeolian dust input in the Late Miocene

The chemical weathering intensity is mainly controlled by temperature in the source areas [62]. The precipitation intensity influenced by the East Asian summer monsoon mainly affects the physical denudation and river runoff [62]. The East Asian winter monsoon (EAWM) mainly influences the transport of aeolian particles [38]. In other words, the environmental changes can significantly alter the sediment material and elemental composition.

The planktonic foraminifera oxygen isotope and CIA can be regarded as the proxies of local temperature and chemical weathering intensity, respectively [59–61]. We find that the CIA of ODP Sites 1146 and 1148 is in good agreement with oxygen isotope variability most of the time since the Late Miocene except 6.5–3 Ma (Figure 4f).

Based on previous studies, the decrease of CIA after 6.5 Ma seems mainly due to the increase of grain size and quartz content [24,38]. However, the negative correlations between CIA and mean grain size of ODP Sites 1146 and 1148 are not significant since the Late Miocene (Figure 5). In general, stronger physical and chemical weathering processes produce sediments with finer grain size [63], and an increase in relative quartz content often leads to a decrease in weathering sensitive minerals [64]. The average grain size and quartz content of sediments at ODP Site 1146 around 6.5 Ma are the largest since 11.63 Ma (Figure 4c and d) [38]. As the winter monsoon intensity increased at 8–6 Ma [65] the wind dust particles were also found at ODP Site 1146 during the Late Miocene [38], these coarse-grained materials with a modal grain size of ∼10 µm were therefore thought to be mainly aeolian dust from inland Asia [38]. However, rivers around the modern SCS can also provide large amounts of >10 μm particles, which are widely distributed on the continental slope [39].

Figure 5

Correlation of mean grain size and CIA of siliciclastic sediments at ODP Sites 1146 and 1148 since the late Miocene, the data are derived from refs [6,23,38,57].

We found that the deposition of distal aeolian dust is likely negligible based on a comprehensive comparison of several studies in inland Asia and the Pacific Ocean. Aeolian dust deposited in the SCS is mainly transported from inland Asia by EAWM today. The Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP) has been consistently regarded as the source area of aeolian dust deposited in the SCS. However, the sediment of >10 μm grain from the CLP is mainly derived from neighboring river systems since the Quaternary [66]. The winter wind mainly transported the aeolian dust at the low altitude within the elevation range of 0–3,000 m, and the particles >10 μm would mostly settle within a horizontal distance of 1,000 km [67]. Meanwhile, the particles <10 μm could be transported for thousands of kilometers, likely to the Pacific Ocean and SCS (Figure 1) [68,69]. The transport distance of the aeolian dust from the CLP to the SCS is more than 3,000 km, and the modern average grain size is 5.75 μm during winter and 3.62 μm from summer [70]. We suggest that the aeolian dust flux should be even smaller with finer grain size in the Late Miocene. First, the intensity of EAWM roughly shows a stepwise enhancement since 8 Ma [71,72], thus the winter monsoon may be weaker in the Late Miocene relative to today. Second, the aeolian dust source area in the inland Asia was much smaller than today [73]. In addition, the mean grain size of the aeolian dust in the northern Pacific and Philippine Sea is always less than 5 μm (Figure 1) [74,75], which is much smaller than the dust in the northern SCS [38]. In addition, the high vegetation cover in the South China had a strong inhibitory effect on the formation of aeolian dust [76,77], even at the glacials on the emerged continental shelf [78,79].

The sediment grain size distribution in the northern SCS is spatially different since the Late Miocene. IODP Sites U1499, U1501, and U1505 are located about 100 km west of ODP Sites 1146 and 1148 (Figure 1), and there are no obvious increases in quartz percentage from 6.5 to 3 Ma at these sites (Figure 4c). The CIA values of IODP Site U1501 are also significantly higher than that of ODP Sites 1146 and 1148 (Figure 4f). For long-distance transport over 3,000 km, the particle size, flux, and chemical composition of wind and dust materials should be homogeneous throughout the northern SCS. Therefore, the spatial differences in sediment composition are more likely to be the result of the interaction between near-field deposition and oceanographic current distribution.

5.2 Taiwan input since the Late Miocene

The weakly-weathered sediments in the northern SCS since 6.5 Ma are more likely from Taiwan. At the beginning of the Late Miocene, the Pearl River became the dominant sediment source to the northern SCS [37]. Around 6.5 Ma, the proto-Taiwan began to rise above sea level [9]. The intense tectonic activities in Taiwan since the Late Miocene would likely strengthen the physical erosion and suppress the chemical weathering [1,14,24]. And the Taiwan sediments could have been transported to the northern SCS, since the instruction of NPDW started at the Early Miocene [16,17].

The weakly-weathered sediments cannot be mainly transported by rivers from the South China, because the chemical weathering intensity of the Pearl River basin was likely even greater in a hot humid climatic condition in the past. The chemical weathering of the Pearl River basin is mainly controlled by temperature and precipitation [80]. The temperature in the Late Miocene was even higher (Figure 4f) [6,50,59–61], and the precipitation was also stronger [81,82]. The warm and humid climate resulted in the growth of a large amount of vegetation; meanwhile, the continuously rising sea level [53,54,83] and the subsidence of the SCS basin [34,57,84] in the Late Miocene likely made the exposure of the shelves improbable. However, the 40–50 m variations of sea level still existed in the Late Miocene (Figure 4b), and the shelf erosion by rivers and waves might have played an essential role.

There are obvious differences in the weathering characteristics between the Pearl River and Taiwan. The chemical weathering intensity in Taiwan is lower and the potassium leaching process is much less sufficient than the Pearl River today [1]. The differences in weathering regimes should already exist in the Late Miocene. Statistically speaking, the R _AK values of ODP Sites 1146 and 1148 are always negative from 11.63 to 7 Ma (Figure 6a), indicating that most of the materials at these two sites come from the Pearl River basin at this time, which is consistent with the results of Sr–Nd isotopes, La/Th, and other provenance proxies (Figure 6b and c) [7,24,58,85]. The R _AK values of these two sites from 7 to 6 Ma changed from significant negative values before 7 Ma to positive or near-zero values after 6.5 Ma, which is the signal of increasing Taiwan sediment input. The R _AK values raised before 6.5 Ma, because the erosion and sediment transport processes like gravity flow and contour current could exist even before Taiwan uplifted above the sea surface [1,89]. In addition, the ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr values increased after 6.5 Ma, also indicating an increase in the relative input from Taiwan rivers (Figure 6b) [58]. Considering the timing of Taiwan uplift at ∼6.5 Ma, we suggest that the transport of Taiwan sediment to the northern SCS probably started around 6.5 Ma. At ∼6.5 Ma, the Taiwan sediments may contain a lot of coarse-grained quartz, feldspar, and mica instead of finer clay minerals due to the insufficient weathering, so the emergence of Taiwan would not influence the clay mineral assemblages drastically during the Late Miocene (Figure 6d).

Figure 6

Temporal evolution of proxies linked to provenance change since the Late Miocene. (a) The R _AK values of IODP Site U1501 and ODP Sites 1144, 1146, and 1148. (b) ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr values at ODP Site 1148 [7]. (c) ε _Nd values at ODP Site 1148 [58,85]. (d) Illite crystallinity values of ODP Site 1146 [24]. Blue and cyan horizontal bars represent ice volume in each hemisphere [86]. The timing of NHG formation is referred to in ref. [87], the timing of MPT is referred to in ref. [88]. The red line highlights the start of Taiwan orogen [9].

5.3 Provenance changes since the Pliocene

After the onset of Taiwan input at ∼6.5 Ma, the change of material source since the Pliocene was mainly controlled by sea level and precipitation instead of tectonic activities. Based on the R _AK values (Figure 6a), we find that the most obvious provenance change is the long-term increase of the Pearl River input after 3.6 Ma. During the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT) which occurred from 1.25 to 0.7 Ma [88], the Taiwan input relatively increased (Figure 6a). In addition, the fluctuation around 5 Ma could be related to the uplift of Dongsha, which mainly consists of basic igneous rocks, is very different from the Pearl River and Taiwan and similar to Luzon [90–92]. The weathering of Dongsha bedrocks could cause the rapid increase of smectite percentages of ODP Site 1146 from 5 to 3.6 Ma [6,93].

The increase of the Pearl River input after 3.6 Ma was mainly related to the growth of ice sheet. The Northern Hemisphere Glaciation (NHG) initiated at 3.6–3.3 Ma and greatly increased at 2.7 Ma [87]. Since 3.6 Ma, the lowered R _AK of ODP Sites 1146 and 1148 and the increased illite crystallinity values of ODP Site 1146 both indicate an obvious increase of the Pearl River input (Figure 6a and d). We suggest that the lower sea level is the primary cause for increasing input from the Pearl River since the Late Pliocene. The sea level dropped about 50 m in the SCS after 3.6 Ma (Figure 4b) [53,54]. The water depth of the shelf edge is approximately 200 m [39], given the over 200 km wide continental shelf (Figures 1 and 7), the Pearl River mouth would get distinctly closer to the continental slope when sea level fell ∼100 m during glacials, and more sediments from the Pearl River would be delivered to the northern SCS slope [36,94]. In contrast, the Taiwan input is insensitive to sea level change because the shelf is much narrower (Figures 1 and 7) [1].

Figure 7

The evolution of the source-to-sink system since the late Miocene. (a) Late Miocene (11 Ma); (b) Late Miocene (6 Ma); (c) Last Glacial Maximum (20 ka); (d) modern (0 ka). The Miocene paleogeographic maps are modified from ref. [84].

During the MPT, the Taiwan input increased based on the positive R _AK values of ODP Sites 1144, 1146, and 1148 (Figure 6a), we suggest the principal mechanisms are the NPIW expansion [42,95] and stronger seasonality according to the fluctuating smectite/kaolinite values after 1.25 Ma (Figure 4e) [38]. NPIW is shallow intermediate water that occupies a depth range of 300–800 m today [41], but its lower boundary deepened to >2 km around 0.9 Ma [95]. The enhancement of NPIW would improve the transport efficiency of Taiwan sediments as it flows westward along the northern SCS slope [18]. The expansion of NPIW ceased after the Mid-Brunhes Event at ∼0.43 Ma [96], contributing to the end of the high Taiwan input thereafter.

During the MPT, not only the NPIW but also the Mediterranean Outflow Water [97], the Indonesian Throughflow [98], and the North Atlantic Current [99] were strengthened, which were strongly related to the oceanographic and eustatic changes that occurred during the MPT [100]. After the MPT (<0.8 Ma), the sediment supply of the Pearl River enhanced again due to the high-amplitude (∼100 m) fluctuations of the global sea level (Figure 7). Furthermore, the sediment supply also increased in continental margins all over the world after the MPT, including the Mediterranean [101,102], the Southern Ocean [103], the Bohai Sea [104], and the Southwest Shelf of Australia [105].

In summary, the provenance changes of the northern SCS since the Late Miocene can be roughly divided into six stages: before 6.5 Ma, the sediment was mainly delivered from Pearl River (Figure 7a); after 6.5 Ma, due to the uplift of Taiwan, the poor-weathered Taiwan sediment began to enter the northern SCS (Figure 7b); from 6.5 to 3.6 Ma, the chemical weathering intensity in Taiwan gradually increased and started to change cooperatively with climate (Figure 4f); after 3.6 Ma, the sea level fell dramatically (Figure 4b) due to the NHG formation, and the Pearl River input rapidly increased; during the MPT, the Taiwan input increased because of the enhanced NPIW; and after the MPT, the glacial ages became longer and colder, the sea level reached the lowest stage (Figure 4b), the Pearl River input increased again (Figure 7c and d). In general, the chemical composition of sediments in the northern SCS was not controlled by climate during the Late Miocene when the sediment composition of Taiwan was still unstable. After the Pliocene, the coordinated variation between Taiwan sediment and the climate became more stabilized, so the climate change regained control over the relative input of each sediment source.

6 Conclusions

Provenance change has a profound effect on sediment composition in the northern SCS. By using the major elemental provenance proxies R _AK and R _KCN, combining with the mineral and isotope data, we reconstruct the evolutionary history of material sources on the northern SCS slope since the Late Miocene. We find that the northern SCS continental slope received sediment from Taiwan immediately after the Taiwan uplift at ∼6.5 Ma. The low weathering degree of the newly exposed Taiwan debris seems to result in a rapid decrease of the weathering intensity of the sediment on the northern SCS slope from 6.5 to 3.6 Ma. As the weathering condition in Taiwan became more stable around the Late Pliocene, the climate became a more crucial factor of provenance change. The relative input of Taiwan and the Pearl River is mainly controlled by sea level and precipitation after the late Pliocene. The expansion of Northern Hemisphere ice sheet around 3.6 Ma resulted in repeated falls in sea level and the increase of the relative input of Pearl River. During the MPT, the relative input of Taiwan increased due to the NPIW expansion. After the MPT, the ice sheet developed remarkably, the sea level reached an extremely low stand which can significantly strengthen the Pearl River input during the subsequent cold glacial periods.

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the captains, scientists, officers, and crew of JOIDES Resolution for their cooperation in collecting sediment cores during the ODP Leg 184 in 1999 and IODP Expedition 367/368 in 2017. Jianghui Du (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich) is appreciated for their constructive comments that help to improve this article.

Funding information: This work was jointly supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41376043) and Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (No. 2019A1515110896).
Author contributions: Z.H. and B.Q.H. conceived the idea of the study. Z.H. and B.Q.H. selected the samples. L.G. did analytical testing. Z.H. interpreted the results and wrote the article. L.G. and N.W. revised the manuscript and improved the language. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. The authors applied the SDC approach for the sequence of authors.
Conflict of interest: The authors state no conflict of interest in this article.
Data availability statement: The data used in this paper are open-source data available at https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.937324.

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Received: 2022-01-08

Revised: 2022-12-18

Accepted: 2022-12-19

Published Online: 2022-12-31

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Sediment provenance in the Northern South China Sea since the Late Miocene

Abstract

1 Introduction

2 Regional setting

3 Materials and methods

3.1 IODP Site U1501 and samples

3.2 ICP-OES analysis

3.3 Sediment provenance proxies

4 Results

5 Discussion

5.1 Negligible aeolian dust input in the Late Miocene

5.2 Taiwan input since the Late Miocene

5.3 Provenance changes since the Pliocene

6 Conclusions

Acknowledgements

References

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