Large river expansion and global cooling controlled the Plio-Pleistocene weathering intensity records in East Asian margin

Abstract

Silicate weathering has long been considered to maintain the Earth's climate stability, yet how the weathering responds to the late Cenozoic cooling remains unclear, partly because of the complicated factors which obscure the weathering records. Large rivers in East Asia integrate continental weathering history, but how the source-to-sink system evolution affected the weathering signals need to be clarified. We compile proxy data of Nd isotopes, zircon ages and Chemical Index of Alteration (CIA) in East Asian margin and source terranes, along with new proxy data from core CSDP-2 in the shelf region, to understand the large river evolution and assess their influence on weathering proxy records. The median εNd values of East Asian marginal sediments increased from −18.8 in pre-3.6 Ma period to −11.3 since the 1.0 Ma, corresponding to the isotopic signatures in North China Craton and Northeastern (NE) Tibetan Plateau/Loess Plateau terranes, respectively. The zircon ages further confirmed the provenance shift, hinting that the modern-like Huanghe (Yellow River) system has been fully integrated during early Pleistocene, no later than ∼1.0 Ma. This integration facilitated the sediment transportation from plateaus into the continental margin. Consequently, the CIA records in marginal regions show a more significant decrease than other Asian regions, within the context of Plio-Pleistocene cooling. Our study found that the upland expansion of large river system and global cooling jointly controlled the decline in the weathering intensity records, highlighting the importance to understand the evolution of source-to-sink system before interpreting the weathering signals from the continental margin sediments.