A series of faulted inland basins were developed in the central Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, among which the Co Ngoin Basin containing thick lacustrine sediments is located in the peripheral area of the Indian monsoon. In this paper, we present the weathering history and paleoclimatic changes in the last 2.8 Ma based on studies of high-resolution temporal distributions of Sr, Rb and Zr concentrations, Rb/Sr and Zr/Rb ratios and δ 13C and TOC for the Co Ngoin sediments, in combination with the sediment properties, grain size distribution and clay mineralogy. The sedimentary records indicate three environmental stages in the last 2.8 Ma. At the core depth of 197?170 m (about 2.8?2.5 Ma), low-intensity chemical weathering in the Co Ngoin catchment was experienced under warm-dry to cool-wet climate conditions with relatively low Sr concentration and high Rb/Sr and Zr/Rb ratios. The sudden occurrence of both subalpine coniferous forest and coarse sand and gravel sediments in the Co Ngoin core reflects a strong tectonic uplift. The high Sr concentrations and low Rb/Sr and Zr/Rb ratios reflect a relatively strong chemical weathering between 2.5 Ma and 0.8 Ma (at the core depth of 170?38.5 m) under a temperate/cool and wet climate, characterized by mud and silt with fine sand, probably indicating a stable process of denudation and planation of the plateau. Above the depth of 38.5 m (about 0.8?0 Ma), the coarsening of sediments indicates a strong tectonic uplift and a relatively low intensity of chemical weathering as supported by the record of sediments having relatively low Sr concentrations and high Rb/Sr and Zr/Rb ratios. Since then, the plateau has taken the shape of the modern topographic pattern above 4000 m a.s.l.
Molar ratios of Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca were measured in two species of ostracod shells preserved in the upper core (15–55 m) of the Hequing Basin in Yunnan Province, southwest China. By correlating the molar ratios between Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca and comparing them with Sr concentrations of the sediments, we suggested that: (1) the molar Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca ratio variations in respective ostracod primo reflected the changes in its ambient water composition and ecology; (2) the molar Sr/Ca ratios responded better to the salinity change linearly than Mg/Ca without aragonite precipitation in the system, and otherwise there was no linear relation between them; and (3) the molar Sr/Ca ratios were mainly controlled by salinity and authigenic carbonate precipitation, whereas the molar Mg/Ca ratios were related to both salinity and temperature. In fact, the rate of ostracod growth owing to temperature controls the fluctuation of Mg/Ca in shells. Here, more attentions should be paid to the constraint of authigenic mineral precipitation processes on the trace elements in ostracod shells and to the correlation between these trace elements in biogenic carbonates and compositions of the sediments in systems and in future in vitro experiments.
HU Guang1,2, JIN ZhangDong1 & ZHANG Fei3 1 State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an 710075, China
