Magnetic properties as tracers for source-to-sink dispersal of sediments: A case study in the Taiwan Strait

Different lithologies between Taiwan and southeastern China lead to diverse mineralogical composition for weathering products derived from the two shores of the Taiwan Strait. Pyrrhotite and magnetite are respectively the dominant magnetic minerals associated with fluvial sediments from western Taiwan and southeastern China. While magnetite commonly co-exists with pyrrhotite in sediments sourced from Taiwan, pyrrhotite has not been found in sediments sourced from mainland China. Associated with such a distinction are vast differences in magnetic properties, including magnetic susceptibility (chi), SIRM, HIRM and the S-ratio, which can be used to study the provenances of sediments in the Taiwan Strait and adjoining marginal seas. Based on any two of these parameters, the magnetic characteristics of much of the Taiwan Strait sediment can be explained using a two-endmember mixing model. Source-to-sink dispersal of sediments in the Taiwan Strait can then be traced from the distribution of these parameters. The results not only corroborate an earlier study based on radionuclides and particle size distribution (Huh et al., 2011) but reveal more diagnostic details. Besides spatial distribution based on a large number (216) of surface sediments, we also analyzed temporal variation of magnetic properties in six well-dated cores collected at key sites along the sediment source-to-sink pathways. From profiles of these parameters in cores from the middle of the northern Taiwan Strait, it is calculated that sediment supply from Taiwan has increased substantially in the past five decades, which may very well be related to accelerated land use and increased frequency of intense rainfalls in Taiwan during the same period. The approach described in this work may be extended to other source-to-sink systems around the world and through time, especially the mountainous islands fringing the Pacific and Indian Oceans in southeastern Asia. As with Taiwan, these islands have high denudation rates and pyrrhotite is in all likelihood a mineral characteristic of their metamorphic terrains. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.