Magnetic parameter variations in the Chaona loess/paleosol sequences in the central Chinese Loess Plateau, and their significance for the middle Pleistocene climate transition

Abstract

A high-resolution rock magnetic investigation was performed on the Chaona Quaternary loess/paleosol sequences in the Central Chinese Loess Plateau. Based on a newly developed independent unturned time scale and magnetic records, we reconstructed the history of the East Asia monsoons during the last 3Ma and explored the middle Pleistocene climate transition (MPT). Rock magnetic results show that the loess layers are characterized by relatively high coercivity and remanent coercivity, lower magnetic susceptibility (MS), and that the paleosol layers are characterized by relatively high MS, saturation magnetization and remanent saturation magnetization. Spectrum analyses indicate that there are various periods in addition to orbital periodicities. According to the onset and stable appearance of 100 kyr period, we consider that the MPT recorded in this section began at ~1.26Ma and was completed by ~0.53Ma, which differs from previous investigations based on orbitally tuned time scales. The forcing mechanism for the MPT was more complicated than just the orbital forcing. We conclude that the rapid uplift of the Tibetan Plateau may have played an important role in the shift of periodicities during the middle Pleistocene.