Nie Junsheng, Pullen Alex, Garzione Carmala N, Peng Wenbin, Wang Zhao
Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China.
Department of Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634, USA.
Sci Adv. 2018 Feb 14;4(2):eaao6977. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aao6977. eCollection 2018 Feb.
Theories of late Cenozoic climate cooling assume that central Asian aridification and high dust accumulation rates in the Chinese Loess Plateau and the North Pacific Ocean are genetically related. On the basis of detailed sediment provenance analysis, we show that high dust accumulation rates in the Chinese Loess Plateau and the North Pacific Ocean during the late Miocene-Pliocene were mainly caused by increased erosion in the Qilian Mountains and low-elevation eastern Asia areas, driven by the effects of East Asian summer monsoon intensification. We conclude that precipitation-driven erosion increased dust input to the North Pacific Ocean and may have played a pivotal role in late Cenozoic climate cooling.
晚新生代气候变冷的理论认为，中亚干旱化与中国黄土高原和北太平洋高粉尘堆积速率在成因上相关。基于详细的沉积物物源分析，我们表明，中新世晚期至上新世期间，中国黄土高原和北太平洋高粉尘堆积速率主要是由东亚夏季风增强作用驱动的祁连山及低海拔东亚地区侵蚀增加所致。我们得出结论，降水驱动的侵蚀增加了北太平洋的粉尘输入，可能在晚新生代气候变冷中起了关键作用。
