Loess in the Tian Shan and its implications for the development of the Gurbantunggut Desert and drying of northern Xinjiang

Eolian loess is widely distributed on the various geomorphic surfaces between 700–2400 m a.s.l. on the northern slope of the Tian Shan. It is formed in a synchronous manner with dust transported from the Gurbantunggut Desert in the Junggar Basin. The thickest section of loess was found in the Shawan and Shihezi regions. Paleomagnetic and climatic proxy analyses of over 71 m of a loess-paleosol sequence on the highest terrace of the Qingshui He (River) in the Shawan show that the paleomagnetic Bruhues/Matuyama (B/M) boundary lies at the bottom of paleosol S8, at a depth of 69.5 m, and the bottom of the sequence was estimated to be ∼0.8 Ma. This implies that the extremely dry climatic conditions in the Junggar Basin and the initial Gurbantunggut Desert were present at least by 0.8 Ma. High-resolution grain size series demonstrate that this area and desert expansion experienced two dramatic periods of desert expansions that occurred at ∼0.65 Ma and 0.5 Ma, respectively; and the subsequent continuous enhancement led to the environment presently observed. This tremendous environmental effect, caused by large-scale expansion of the desert and arid region of inner Asia, might be an important driving force for the global temperature drop that occurred in the mid-Pleistocene.