Sediment provenance and paleoenvironmental change in the Ulleung Basin of the East (Japan) Sea during the last 21 kyr

Abstract

Despite the well-reconstructed paleoceanography of the late Quaternary deposits in the East (Japan) Sea (ES), provenances of terrigenous sediments and a comprehensive interpretation of their variations since the Last Glacial Maximum remain unclear, especially in regard to the mainland China- and Taiwan-derived matter. Grain size, conservative trace elements, rare earth elements (REEs), Nd isotope, and clay mineralogy of core sediments from the Ulleung Basin of the ES were investigated for better understanding of detrital sediment provenance and transport process and then their forcing mechanisms over the last 21 kyr. Geochemical-mineralogical multi-indices in this study showed notable three-phase changes in sediment provenance, which can be closely related to sea-level fluctuation, development of the Tsushima Warm Current as well as intermittent influence from the East Asian summer monsoon climate evolution. During Unit 1(21.1-8.4 kyr BP) when the Tsushima Warm Current was absent in the ES, the paleo-Changjiang and the paleo-Huanghe mouth might be situated close to the study area and thus mainland China could have played major role in the southwestern Ulleung Basin sedimentation. In particular, the formation of rhythmic dark-colored alternation in Unit 1 is possibly attributable to the pulse of paleo-Huanghe discharge associated with centurial- to millennial-scale variability in the East Asian summer monsoon. In Unit 2 (8.4-7.2 kyr BP), these river mouths gradually retreated to their present positions with global sea-level rise, leading to decreasing terrigenous sediment supply from mainland China to the study area. Since 7.2 kyr BP (Unit 3), sedimentation in the Ulleung Basin should still be mainly derived from mainland China. Meanwhile, increasing chlorite/kaolinite ratio but decreasing epsilon(Nd) value revealed that terrigenous matter from Taiwan might have been limitedly transported northward to the study area by the fully evolved Tsushima Warm Current. A prominent decline in chlorite/kaolinite ratio, together with contrast change on epsilon(Nd) value, centered at around 2.9 kyr BP (3.3-2.4 kyr BP) may have been caused by the Tsushima Warm Current suppression, possibly related to the Pulleniatina minimum event popularly found in the study area and nearby seas. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.