Postdoctor JIN Chunsheng and Professor LIU Qingsong study revisiting the stratigraphic position of the Matuyama–Brunhes geomagnetic polarity boundary in Chinese loess.

In the study, an accurate transitional zone of the MB reversal from the Mangshan profile, southeast margin of the Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP), was statistically determined using multiple subsets of parallel samples. By integrating results from the central CLP, the whole MB transitional zone is consistently located across the pedostratigraphic and climatostratigraphic transitional zones between S8 and L8 over a wide region of the CLP.

The conclusion further supports that the paleosol unit S8 should be teleconnected to the marine oxygen isotope stage 19 rather than 21, and thus unambiguously supplies an accurate age control in constructing a new loess time scale.

Jin et al. Revisiting the stratigraphic position of the Matuyama–Brunhes geomagnetic polarity boundary in Chinese loess. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology，2011, 299: 309-317 （Download Here）

Stratigraphic correlations between the Luochuan section, Mangshan section. (Image by JIN Chunsheng)