Rock Magnetism Study on Loess-Paleosol Sequence at Huixinggou Section of Sanmenxia Basin

Rock magnetism is the foundation of paleomagnetism and environmental magnetism study, and is effective in identifying the components, grain size and content of magnetic minerals in rocks and sediments. A systematic rock magnetism investigation has been conducted on the Huixinggou loess-paleosol sequence at Shuigou-Huixinggou Paleolithic site of Sanmenxia Basin in the southeastern Loess Plateau. Results show that the magnetic assemblage of the section is dominated by magnetite and maghemite, as well as hematite, exhibiting the average grain size of magnetic minerals is attributed to Pseudo-Single Domain (PSD). The variation curves of magnetic parameters are consistent and well comparable to marine oxygen isotope curves, with low values corresponding to the loess deposition during glacial periods, and high values corresponding to the paleosol development during interglacial periods, jointly demonstrating the glacial-interglacial cyclicities of magnetic mineral types, composition, and grain size of Chinese loess-paleosol sequences under the influence of alternating strengthening and weakening of Eastern Asian paleomonsoon over the Quaternary period. Comprehensive analysis reveals that the relative content of high-coercivity antiferromagnetic minerals is higher in loess than in paleosol, whilst the absolute content of high-coercivity antiferromagnetic minerals in paleosol is generally higher than that in loess accompanying increasing intensity of pedogenesis. The mass-specific magnetic susceptibility (χ) shows distinctly positive correlations with anhysteretic susceptibility (χ_ARM), Saturation Isothermal Remanent Magnetization (SIRM) and magnetic grain size dependent parameters (χ_ARM/SIRM and χ_ARM/χ), indicating that the pedogenic producing Single Domain (SD) and small PSD ferrimagnetic particles contribute significantly to the magnetic susceptibility enhancement.