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Clay minerals in surface sediments of the Pearl River drainage basin and their contribution to the South China Sea

  • Articles/Geology
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Chinese Science Bulletin

Abstract

Clay minerals have played a significant role in the study of the East Asian monsoon evolution in the South China Sea by being able to track oceanic current variations and to reveal contemporaneous paleoclimatic changes prevailing in continental source areas. As one of the most important rivers inputting terrigenous matters to the northern South China Sea, the Pearl River was not previously paid attention to from the viewpoint of clay mineralogy. This paper presents a detailed study on clay minerals in surface sediments collected from the Pearl River drainage basin (including all three main channels, various branches, and the Lingdingyang in the estuary) by using the X-ray diffraction (XRD) method. The results indicate that the clay mineral assemblage consists dominantly of kaolinite (35%–65%), lesser abundance of chlorite (20%–35%) and illite (12%–42%), and very scare smectite occurrences (generally <5%). Their respective distribution does not present any obvious difference throughout the Pearl River drainage basin. However, downstream the Pearl River to the northern South China Sea, the clay mineral assemblage varies significantly: kaolinite decreases gradually, smectite and illite increase gradually. Additionally, illite chemistry index steps down and illite crystallinity steps up. These variations indicate the contribution of major kaolinite, lesser illite and chlorite, and very scarce smectite to the northern South China Sea from the Pearl River drainage basin. The maximum contribution of clay minerals from the Pearl River is 72% to the northern margin and only 15% to the northern slope of the South China Sea. In both glacials and interglacials, kaolinite indicates that the ability of mechanical erosion occurred in the Pearl River drainage basin.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Marine Geology, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China

    ZhiFei Liu & Wei Huang

  2. Laboratoire IDES, UMR 8148 CNRS, Université de Paris XI, Orsay, 91405, France

    Christophe Colin

  3. South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510301, China

    Zhong Chen

  4. UMR PBDS 8110 CNRS/USTL, FR 1818, Université de Lille I, Villeneuve d’Ascq, 59655, France

    Alain Trentesaux

  5. Second Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration, Hangzhou, 310012, China

    JianFang Chen

Authors
  1. ZhiFei Liu
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  2. Christophe Colin
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  3. Wei Huang
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  4. Zhong Chen
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  5. Alain Trentesaux
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  6. JianFang Chen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to ZhiFei Liu.

Additional information

Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 40331002, 40621063 and 40506014), the Fok Ying Tung Education Foundation (Grant No. 101018), the Doctoral Program of Higher Education (Grant No. 20060247032), the Excellent Young Teachers Program and the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University of the Ministry of Education of China (Grant No. NCET-04-0372), and the Laboratory of Marginal Sea Geology Grant of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. BYH03A08)

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Liu, Z., Colin, C., Huang, W. et al. Clay minerals in surface sediments of the Pearl River drainage basin and their contribution to the South China Sea. Chin. Sci. Bull. 52, 1101–1111 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-007-0161-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-007-0161-9

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