Oxygen isotope stratigraphy and events in the northern South China Sea during the last 6 million years

Abstract

Based on the stable isotopic analysis of more than 1000 samples of planktonic and benthic foraminifers from ODP Site 1148 in the northern South China Sea (SCS), the oxygen isotope stratigraphy has been applied to the last 3 million years for the first time in the SCS. Furthermore, the paleoceanographic changes in the northern SCS during the last 6 million years have been unraveled. The benthic foraminiferal δ 18 O record shows that before ~3.1 Ma the SCS was much more influenced by the warm intermediate water of the Pacific. The remarkable decrease in the deepwater temperature of the SCS during the period of 3.1—2.5 Ma demonstrates the formation of the Northern Hemisphere ice-sheet. However, the several sea surface temperature (SST) reductions during the early and middle Pliocene, reflected by the planktonic foraminiferal δ 18 O, might be related to the ice-sheet growth in the Antarctic region. Only those stepwise and irreversible SST reductions during the period of ~2.2—0.9 Ma could be related to the formation and growth of the Northern Hemisphere ice-sheet.