Loess-soil sequences in southern Anhui Province: Magnetostratigraphy and paleoclimatic significance

Two parallel loess-soil sequences from Xuancheng and Fanchang in southern Anhui Province are dated using geomagnetic and luminescence methods. The Brunhes/Matuyama (B/M) reversal boundary is recognized within the lower part of the so-called Vermiculated Red Soil (VRS) in the Xuancheng section while the entire Fanchang sequence is of Brunhes age. This indicates that the most recent VRS in southern China, a stratigraphic marker and an indication of extremely warm-humid conditions, was formed during the middle Pleistocene, chronologically correlative with the S4 and S5 soil units in northern China. Microscopic and sedimentologic investigations reveal that eolian deposition started in this region at about 0.85 MaBP, roughly synchronous with the well-known Mid-Pleistocene climate change of global significance. The strengthening of both summer and winter monsoon circulations and the consequent river hydrological changes at that time would have provided favorable conditions for sustained eolian deposition in the middle-lower reaches of the Yangtze River since 0.85 MaBP.