Timing of fluvial sedimentation in the Baiyangdian catchment, North China Plain, since the late Pleistocene by multiple luminescence dating approaches

Abstract

The North China Plain is one of the key pathways to the ‘source-to-sink’ sedimentary system in East Asia and an important area of human occupation. It has also experienced a large amount of deposition of thick fluvial sediments. Thus, chronostratigraphy research in the North China Plain since the Late Pleistocene is critical to understanding the sedimentary processes and glacial–interglacial climate changes occurring since the Late Pleistocene. In this study, 14 fine-grained (FG) luminescence samples collected from a sedimentary core (GB210) drilled from the Baiyangdian catchment in the North China Plain, were employed for quartz optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), and polymineral post infrared (IR) IRSL (pIRIR₁₅₀ and pIRIR₂₉₀) dating. The luminescence ages were compared to evaluate the reliability and to establish a luminescence chronology of the core sediments. The results showed that the anomalous fading of the polymineral pIRIR₁₅₀ signal is small. The fading corrected pIRIR₁₅₀ ages agree with the FG quartz OSL ages. The FG quartz OSL age corresponding to early Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 4 may be slightly underestimated due to signal saturation. However, the pIRIR₂₉₀ signal yielded overestimated ages. The chronology based on the fading corrected pIRIR₁₅₀ ages suggests that the deposition of the studied sediments began in MIS 5. Variations in the sedimentation rate correspond to summer climate changes, while the grain size indicates winter climate changes.