Sand samples deposited since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) from the Hulun Buir, Horqin and Otin-dag sandlands were measured for their assemblages of heavy minerals and chemical compositions of detrital garnets and tourmalines. Heavy mineral assemblages of these three sandlands consist mainly of garnet, ilmenite, epidote and minor amphibole and magnetite. Garnets consist mainly of high Mg type-A ones (58% on average), and minor type-B ones. Toumalines are mainly composed of Mg-rich and minor Fe-rich ones. Compared with those of central-southern Mongolia and central Tarim, these three sandlands are derived from the Phanerozoic rocks of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt and the Archean and Paleoprotorozoic basement rocks of the North China Craton. Our results provide direct evidence that the present-day sands may be reworked from LGM ones. Differences of heavy mineral composi-tions occur between the samples of the three sandlands and Taklimakan Desert, indicating that the material of the western arid regions contributes little to the eastern sandlands.
XIE Jing1,2 & DING ZhongLi1 1 Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
This paper contributes to a better understanding of the source of dust storms in northern China and the relati...
Xiaoping Yang~(a,*),Yongsheng Liu~(a,1),Chaozhu Li~(a,2), Yuling Song~b,Heping Zhu~a,Xindi Jin~a a Institute of Geology and Geophysics,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing,China b Department of Physics and Information Technology,Ningxia Normal College,Guyuan,China 1 Present affiliation:China Institute of Geoenvironment Monitoring, Beijing. 2 Present affiliation:Institute of Geomechanics,Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences,Beijing.
