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Controls on Modern Erosion and the Development of the Pearl River Drainage in the Late Paleogene

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Marine Geology

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/margo

Invited research article

Controls on modern erosion and the development of the Pearl River drainage in the late Paleogene

Chang Liua, Peter D. Clifta,b,⁎, Andrew Carterc, Philipp Böningd, Zhaochu Hue, Zhen Sunf, Katharina Pahnked

a

Department of Geology and Geophysics, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge 70803, USA School of Geography Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Birkbeck College, University of London, London WC1E 7HX, UK Max Planck Research Group for Marine Isotope Geochemistry, Institute of Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM), University of Oldenburg, 26129,

bcd

Germany

e

State Key Laboratory of Geological Processes and Mineral Resources, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China Key Laboratory of Marginal Sea Geology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 164 Xingangxi Road, Guangzhou 510301, China

f

  • A R T I C L E I N F O
  • A B S T R A C T

Keywords:

Zircon Nd isotope Erosion Provenance Pearl River South China Sea International Ocean discovery program IODP site U1435

The Pearl River and its tributaries drains large areas of southern China and has been the primary source of sediment to the northern continental margin of the South China Sea since its opening. In this study we use a combination of bulk sediment geochemistry, Nd and Sr isotope geochemistry, and single grain zircon U-Pb dating to understand the source of sediment in the modern drainage. We also performed zircon U-Pb dating on Eocene sedimentary rocks sampled by International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 349 in order to constrain the source of sediment to the rift before the Oligocene. A combination of Nd and Sr isotopes shows that the Gui, Liu and Dong Rivers are likely not important sources. Single grain zircon dates emphasize the importance of the westernmost tributaries (Hongshui and Yu Rivers), which drain the highest topography and tectonically active areas, as the primary sediment producers. Our data indicate that climate is not the primary control on erosion patterns and intensities. Zircon dating also shows that the Gui and Liu Rivers are not generating large sediment yields. Discrepancies between these new data and earlier samples make the role of the Dong River hard to determine, although Nd isotopes suggest that it is not dominant. The source of sediment during the Eocene at IODP Site U1435 appears to have been a relatively local basement source, or a regionally restricted river only draining nearby areas of the Cathaysia Block, similar, but not identical, to the modern Dong River. There is no evidence for a large regional river and we exclude sediment transport from the southwest (Indochina). Our data are consistent with small drainage systems dominating the basin until the end of the Oligocene (~24 Ma), after which the Pearl River expanded towards its modern state as a result of headwater capture largely towards the west.

1. Introduction

the uplift of the Tibetan plateau (Clark et al., 2004; Clift et al., 2006;

Zheng et al., 2013). In this respect the Pearl River (Fig. 1) has typically
Drainage systems are born and develop in response to interactions between climate and tectonic processes. As new ocean basins open or mountain ranges rise, drainages reorganize in response to the changing topography and discharge supplied as result of precipitation (Brookfield, 1998; Clark et al., 2004). In so doing they can be sensitive indicators of continental processes, which are then preserved in the sedimentary record within basins supplied by those rivers. The major rivers of Southeast Asia have been the subject of significant speculation about their development, as a result of their proposed interaction with been considered anomalous in that it is generally not thought to have been involved in major headwater capture during plateau uplift, but may be more closely tied to the development of the South China Sea (Clark et al., 2004). In this study we assess the geographic diversity of sources within the modern river in order to map crustal heterogeneity and to see where the modern river derives its sediment. We use this knowledge to interpret Eocene fluvio-deltaic sedimentary rocks collected by coring within the South China Sea to determine how the Eocene Pearl River compares with the modern. This then allows us to

⁎

Corresponding author at: Department of Geology and Geophysics, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge 70803, USA.

E-mail addresses: [email protected], [email protected] (P.D. Clift). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.margeo.2017.07.011

Received 18 June 2016; Received in revised form 11 July 2017; Accepted 16 July 2017

0025-3227/©2017ElsevierB.V.Allrightsreserved.

Pleasecitethisarticleas:Liu,C.,MarineGeology(2017),http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.margeo.2017.07.011

C. Liu et al.

M a r i n e G e o l o g y x x x ( x xxx ) x xx–xxx

Bei

  • 110˚E
  • 115˚E
  • 120˚E

  • A
  • B

50 km

Dong

25˚

Yangtze Block

N

C

Taiwan

Pearl
P4

B

Cathaysia Hainan

X28
L18

L21

P1
R11

Indochina

L13

20˚

705

ODP 1148
N

IODP U1435
South China Sea

C

26˚ 25˚

B

501
105

005

003
102

24˚ 23˚ 22˚

206

  • P7
  • P1

P4
906

903

N

304
705
R11

Pearl River mouth

0
200

km

  • 110˚
  • 115˚

105˚

Fig. 1. A) Map showing the Pearl River area in a regional context, as well as the location of IODP Site U1435, ODP Site 1148 and industrial wells. B) Close-up image of the distributary system in the Pearl River Mouth area. C) Map showing the distribution of the Pearl River tributaries, as well as the sampling locations.

  • understand how the river has developed to its present state.
  • River is one of the major sediment sources to the northern part of the

South China Sea, although flux from Taiwan's many smaller rivers has been significantly greater in the recent geologic past (Milliman and Meade, 1983). The climate of the PRD is dominated by the East Asian
The modern Pearl River Drainage (PRD) covers 8600 km2 and flows across the South China tectonic block, composed of both the Yangtze Craton and the Cathaysia Block (Yao et al., 2013) (Fig. 2). The Pearl

Fig. 2. Map showing the major tectonic blocks within the Pearl River catchment, as well as the sample locations. Cathaysia block covers the SE area from which most of our samples are derived. The Yangtze block includes only three of the samples in the NE of catchment. The boundary between these two blocks is modified after He et al. (2014). Subdivisions within these blocks are defined based on the results of the analysis presented here.

27˚N

Ho ngshu

i River

26˚N 25˚N

Liu River

501

He River

105
005
102

River

r

Bei

003

206

P7

24˚N

ng Rive oD

P4
P1

705
906
903
304

23˚N 22˚N

R11

0
200

km

  • 105˚E
  • 110˚E
  • 115˚E

Yangtze Craton Cathaysia
~400 Ma - Caledonian influence ~800 Ma - Yangtze Craton influence ~1000 Ma - Cathaysia influence ~1800 Ma - Luliangian influence
~100 Ma - Cretaceous arc influence ~250 Ma - Indosinian influence

2

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