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The Holocene
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Locating the boundary between the Pleistocene and the Holocene in Chinese loess using luminescence

Zhong-Ping Lai

Centre for the Environment, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1-3QY, UK, zhongping.lai{at}staff.uni-marburg.de, zplai{at}yahoo.com.cn

Ann G. Wintle

Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, University of Wales, Aberystwyth SY23 3DB, UK

A detailed chronology has been obtained for a loess section at Yuanbao, situated at the northwestern edge of the Chinese Loess Plateau. The ages were obtained by the measurement of the optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) from coarse-silt-sized quartz grains. These ages showed that deposition at this site was continuous from 17 ka to the present, but that there was a decrease in the sedimentation rate from 0.60 to 0.10 m/ka at 13.489±1.15 ka, and this is proposed as the location of the Pleistocene/Holocene (P/H) boundary. A change in OSL sensitivity occurs at this depth. The depth and sharpness of this boundary is compared with the change obtained in low-field magnetic susceptibility (MS) measurements on 65 samples from the section. The MS changes gradually over 1.9 m and thus does not provide an easily discernible boundary. The new OSL-based sedimentation rates are used to calculate the mass accumulation rates for the Holocene and the end of the Pleistocene.

Key Words: Chinese loess • Pleistocene/Holocene boundary • sedimentation rate • luminescence chronology • quartz OSL • optically stimulated luminescence • magnetic susceptibility

The Holocene, Vol. 16, No. 6, 893-899 (2006)
DOI: 10.1191/0959683606hol980rr
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H. Zhao, F.-H. Chen, S.-H. Li, A. G. Wintle, Y.-X. Fan, and D.-S. Xia
A record of Holocene climate change in the Guanzhong Basin, China, based on optical dating of a loess-palaeosol sequence
The Holocene, November 1, 2007; 17(7): 1015 - 1022.
[Abstract] [PDF]