New insights into magnetic enhancement mechanism in Chinese paleosols

Magnetic susceptibility of Chinese loess–paleosol sequences has been extensively used as a reliable paleoclimatic proxy for reconstruction of the Asian summer monsoon system, and its enhancement is usually attributed to neoformation of fine-grained ferrimagnetic particles via pedogenesis, but there is little understanding of either the formation process of such magnetic particles or their actual form and grain sizes. To investigate these problems, scanning electron microscope observations were conducted on magnetic extracts from pristine loess and strongly-pedogenic paleosol samples from Xifeng on the Chinese Loess Plateau. Both magnetic extracts commonly contained coarse-grained detrital magnetite with grain size ranging from a few μm to several tens of μm. However, the magnetic extract from the mature paleosol sample additionally included coarse silicate particles with ultrafine ferrimagnetic inclusions, while that from the pristine loess sample did not. The size of the ferrimagnetic inclusions mainly ranged from tens to hundreds of nanometers. The temperature-dependent susceptibility and hysteresis loops of the paleosol sample, combined with the stratigraphic variations of rock-magnetic parameters, showed that the pedogenic maghemite inclusions should be a potential contributor to magnetic enhancements in Chinese paleosols. The fine-grained ferrimagnetic inclusions have been pedogenically formed by weathering of coarse-grained Fe-bearing silicate minerals. Our proposed magnetic enhancement mechanism is consistent with the accepted rock magnetic result that magnetic enhancement in Chinese paleosols is caused by pedogenic maghemite grains in superparamagnetic and single-domain size regions. The presence of ultrafine ferrimagnetic grains as inclusions within coarse silicate particles is also consistent with Han and Jiang's (1999) significant experimental result that magnetic enhancement in Chinese paleosols is mainly contributed by the > 0.5 μm sediment fractions.

► Magnetic enhancement in Chinese paleosols is a proxy of Asian summer monsoon.
► Magnetic enhancement in Chinese paleosols is due to pedogenic maghemite inclusions.
► Pedogenic maghemite inclusions derive from weathering of Fe-bearing host silicate.
► Grain size of maghemite inclusions ranges from tens to hundreds of nanometers.