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Episodic gullying and paleomonsoon cycles on the Chinese Loess Plateau

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Stephen C. Porter  and
Zhisheng An
Stephen C. Porter*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Space Sciences, and Quaternary Research Center, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
Zhisheng An
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 10 Fenghui South Road, Xi'an High-Tech Zone, Xi'an 710075, China
*
* Corresponding author. E-mail addresses:scporter@u.washinton.edu (S.C. Porter), anzs@loess.llqg.ac.cn (Z. An).
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Abstract

Buried gullies exposed in road excavations along the margin of a loess tableland on the Loess Plateau of central China lie within a thick loess-paleosol succession that spans ≥780,000 years. Constraining ages for gully cutting and filling are provided by dates of loess and soil units cut by and capping the paleogullies. An episode of gully cutting begins at the onset of an interglaciation and ceases as the gullies begin to fill with colluvium and airborne dust during the transition to full-glacial conditions. The episodic cutting and filling of gullies implies a basic astronomical (orbital) control of gully evolution involving cyclic changes in dominant summer and winter monsoon climates, surface hydrology, and vegetation cover.

Keywords

Loess PlateauChinaPaleomonsoonsPaleogulliesLoessPaleosols
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 64 , Issue 2 , September 2005 , pp. 234 - 241
Copyright
Copyright © University of Washington

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