Late Quaternary climatic forcing on the terrigenous supply in the northern South China Sea: Input from magnetic studies

The detrital component of marine sediment is a powerful recorder of paleoenvironmental changes in a marginal sea such as the South China Sea. This is in particular valid for the magnetic fraction that is one of the key parameters for paleoenvironmental studies in the South China Sea, although poorly used so far. We report here on the analysis of the magnetic properties of a 50 m-long sedimentary sequence retrieved from the northern South China Sea, on the continental slope off the Pearl River mouth. Magnetic minerals with different coercivities (magnetite, pyrrhotite, and hematite) are mixed. The variations in relative content of these magnetic minerals illustrate influences of various external forcing mechanisms at different timescales. The pyrrhotite content exhibits a long-term increase, which is also observed in illite + chlorite content, indicating a continuous enhancement of supply from Taiwan most likely related to active Taiwan orogeny. Glacial-interglacial fluctuations are characterized by more magnetite and pyrrhotite with coarser silt and magnetic grains during glacials than interglacials. This is attributed to sea-level changes with the enormous continental shelf exposed during glacials, in turn affecting the sediment transport distance and pathway. On a shorter timescale, larger hematite inputs in fine-grained sediments coincide with precession minima. We suggest that this periodic hematite supply change is related to the eolian dust deposited at the studied site in addition to the fluvial and oceanic transported materials.