Rock magnetic response to climatic changes in west Philippine Sea for the last 780 ka: Discussion based on relative paleointensity assisted chronology

Abstract

We conducted rock magnetic and paleomagnetic research on two deep-sea sediment cores from the west Philippine Sea, located to the east of Benham Rise with the length of 4 m and water depth of over 5000 m. At the bottom of core 146 occurs a reversal of inclination and deflection of relative declination, which is recognized as Brunhes-Matuyama Polarity Boundary (MBPB). No reversal occurs in core 89, which implies a younger bottom age than that of core 146. Rock magnetic results reveal magnetic uniformities in mineralogy, concentration and grain size along the two cores, thus relative paleointensity variations are acquired. The three normalizers-anhysteresis remanent magnetization (ARM), magnetic susceptibility (k) and saturation isothermal remanent magnetization (SIRM) are used for normalization to obtain relative paleointensities. The three normalization results are averaged to indicate the paleoitensity of the cores and are further stacked together to get a synthetic curve for west Philippine Sea (named asWPS800 in this paper). Based on the magnetic correlation between cores and paleointensity to Sint800, we transfer the changes of rock magnetic parameters from depth to time. Furthermore, the astronomically tuned oxygen isotope from ODP site 1143 in the south China Sea is used for the glacial and interglacial indicator. Three concentration proxies (ARM, k and SIRM) and grain size indicators (kARM/SIRM, kARM/k) are examined according to the paleointensity-assisted chronology. The grain size changes in the two cores display a consistent pattern with the climatic changes embodied by oxygen isotope. The magnetic sizes are usually coarser in glacial periods and finer in interglacial times, which may reflect the influence of chemical erosion rather than fining from sea level rising on the source sediment. Furthermore, the sub-peaks and sub-troughs in interglaciations almost correspond with that of oxygen isotope records, which means sedimentation can reflect the subtle changes in interglaciations. This kind of revelation of climatic fluctuation by magnetic size is also found in the South China Sea, which shows a common pattern of magnetic signals to climate at least within East Asia. The concentration of ARM (representing more about fine grain) also shows similar response to glacial and interglacial cycles, that is, high in interglacial cycle and low in glacial cycle; but k and SIRM (reflecting more about coarse grain) lack the response to the climatic cycles. At the same time, S-ratio lacks the correlation with aeolian dust record and rhythmic changes, indicating the dominant source of main magnetic carrier (low coercivity magnetite) is the suspended matter instead of dust. The decreasing trend of sedimentation rate from west to east also reveals that the sediments are mainly from west Luzon and adjacent land. Grain sizes first became coarse and then stable around 400 ka B.P., and at the same time all the magnetic contents lowered and amplitude of magnetic mineral changes increased. The magnetic transition around 400 ka B.P. is simultaneous with the decreases of carbonate content, reflecting a global carbonate dissolution event, i.e. mid Brunhes event. The synchronization of magnetic content and grain size with climatic cycles of glacials and interglacials imply the validity of paleointesnityassisted chronology. Also, the response of rock magnetic signals to stable oxygen isotope changes and carbonate variation reveals that rock magnetismmethod can be an effective tool for paleoclimatic and paleoceanographic research.