Marine Geology 176 (2001) 175189

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Paleocurrent analysis for the Late PleistoceneHolocene incised-valley ll of the Yangtze delta, China by using anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility data
Baozhu Liu a,*, Yoshiki Saito a, Toshitsugu Yamazaki a, Abdelaziz Abdeldayem a,b, Hirokuni Oda a, Kazuaki Hori c, Quanhong Zhao d
MRE Geological Survey of Japan, AIST, Higashi 1-1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305 8567, Japan b Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, Tanta University, Tanta 31527, Egypt c Department of Geography, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo, Hongo 7-3-1, Bunkyou-ku, Tokyo 113 0033, Japan d Marine Geology Laboratory, Tongji University, 1239 Siping Road, Shanghai 200092, People's Republic of China Received 9 August 2000; accepted 16 March 2001
a

Anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) analysis has been conducted on samples from borehole core CM-97 from the Yangtze River (Changjiang) incised-valley ll, China, to determine the paleocurrent directions to help in reconstructing sedimentary paleoenvironments. Borehole CM-97 consists of uvial (Unit 1), estuarine (Units 26), and deltaic (Units 79) sediments after the Last Glacial Maximum in ascending order. The AMS results show that the paleocurrent directions for the tide-dominated estuarine and deltaic sediments were westerly or northwesterly directed (ood-tide dominated), but give no denite trend for the uvial sediments. Comparison between the paleocurrent directions inferred from primary sedimentary structures and in situ AMS data shows that they are in good agreement, conrming the applicability of AMS as a good paleocurrent indicator for sediments deposited in coastal tide-dominated environments. Considering that these sediments were strongly tide-inuenced and the tidal pattern since 12 kyr bp has not changed signicantly, we think that the westerly or northwesterly current direction most probably resulted from ood-tidal currents, and the sedimentary paleoenvironment was a ood-tide dominated estuary or delta. Additionally, it has been found that downhole changes of some AMS parameters, including the mean magnetic susceptibility (K), the corrected anisotropy degree (Pj) and the magnetic foliation (F), clearly mark the dened stratigraphic boundaries in the borehole. This further extends the validity of AMS as a good stratigraphic marker in addition to its long known credibility as a sensible paleocurrent recorder. q 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS); Yangtze delta; Paleocurrent; Tide-dominated; Incised-valley ll

* Corresponding author. Tel.: 181-298-61-3719; fax: 181-29861-3747. E-mail addresses: bzhliu@hotmail.com (B. Liu).

All materials acquire magnetization in a magnetic eld and thus have a magnetic susceptibility. This susceptibility is not always isotropic and varies with the orientations of the rock (Ising, 1942). This

0025-3227/01/$ - see front matter q 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S 0025-322 7(01)00151-7

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spatial susceptibility variation is dened as the anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) and reects the preferred orientation of magnetic minerals in the rock or unconsolidated sediments, i.e. its magnetic fabric (Hrouda, 1982; Tarling and Hrouda, 1993). AMS has long been demonstrated as a useful tool for paleocurrent determination, in particular for deep-sea sediments such as contourites (Ellwood and Ledbetter, 1977, 1979; Ellwood et al., 1979; Ellwood, 1980; Ledbetter and Ellwood, 1980; Abdeldayem et al., 1999), turbidites (Ellwood and Ledbetter, 1977; Ledbetter and Ellwood, 1980), submarine canyon and fan sediments (Rees et al., 1968), as well as Mid-Proterozoic embayment shales (Schieber and Ellwood, 1993) and Palaeozoic ysch shales (Piper et al., 1996), modern beach sand sediments (Rees, 1965; Taira and Lienert, 1979), and laboratory deposited sediments (Rees, 1965; Rees and Woodall, 1975). AMS of experimental tidal at sediments has also been reported (Ellwood, 1984). However, to the best of our knowledge, no similar work has been done on natural sediments deposited in coastal tide-dominated estuary or delta environments. If AMS were also applicable, it would be of great help for detailed reconstruction of coastal sedimentary paleoenvironments. AMS of a rock sample corresponds to a symmetrical second-rank tensor (Hrouda, 1982) which can be described by a triaxial ellipsoid with the principal eigenvectors K1 . K2 . K3 representing the maximum, intermediate and minimum susceptibility axes, respectively. Usually, current would be parallel to the K1 axis and in favorable conditions its absolute direction may be inferred from the tilting direction of K3 axis (Rees, 1965; Tarling and Hrouda, 1993; Tarling and Shi, 1995; Piper et al., 1996; Abdeldayem et al., 1999). However, current could be perpendicular to the axes of K1 if the ow is strong enough and the grains are very ne under traction sedimentation (Ellwood and Ledbetter, 1977, 1979; Ledbetter and Ellwood, 1980). This study, therefore, attempts for the rst time to use AMS, to determine paleocurrent direction for sediments from the Late PleistoceneHolocene Yangtze incised-valley ll, China, which are characterized by typical tide-dominated estuarine and deltaic sediments (Hori et al., 1999, 2001a,b).

The Yangtze River (Changjiang) of China, the longest river in Asia, has a length of about 6300 km, a total catchment area of about 1.8 10 6 km 2, mean annual runoff of 893 10 9 m 3, and mean annual sediment discharge of 481 10 6 t (Milliman and Meade, 1983; Huang et al., 1996; Li and Wang, 1998; Chen et al., 2000). It originates in the Kunlun Mountains in the southwestern part of Qinghai Province, north of the Tibet Plateau, and ows towards the east to its mouth into the East China Sea, about 23 km north of Shanghai. The present Yangtze delta has been forming since the maximum transgression in the Holocene at about 7 kyr bp (Liu et al., 1992; Huang et al., 1996; Chen and Chen, 1997; Li and Wang, 1998; Li et al., 2000). The Yangtze delta plain, with low relief of 35 m, is located at its end and faces the East China Sea and the South Yellow Sea (Chen, 1999; Li et al., 2000). The Yangtze delta is one of the typical tide-dominated deltas in the world. At present, it is in a meso-to macrotidal environment with an average tidal range of 2.6 m, and the maximum of about 5.0 m (Li and Wang, 1998). The present tide in the Yangtze River estuary area is irregular semidiurnal, the ood-tidal current direction is towards the NW, while the ebb-tidal current is obviously diverted towards the south at SSE (Chen et al., 1988; Huang et al., 1996; Chen, 1999; Chen et al., 2000). However, tidal currents were inferred to be much stronger during the transgression stage in the Holocene than at present, during which the average tidal range was greater than 4 m (Li et al., 2001). During the Last Glacial Maximum, the shoreline was located near the edge of the East China Sea continental shelf (Zhu et al., 1979), and a huge incised-valley was formed in the present Yangtze delta area (Li et al., 2000; Fig. 1), whereas during the postglacial sea-level rise, most of the incised-valley had been lled, and the present Yangtze delta had downlapped onto the estuarine deposits (Li et al., 2000). The incised-valley sequence after the Last Glacial Maximum consists of a uvial unit, estuary units, and delta units in ascending order (Li et al., 2000; Hori et al., 2001b).

A seventy-meter-long borehole, CM-97 (latitude

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subtidal at deposits, and Unit 6 of estuarine central basin deposits (Hori et al., 1999, 2001b). Units 79 were formed during about 61.5 kyr bp, and are regressive deltaic sediments consisting of clayey silt to ne sand. Sedimentary environments of these units are prodelta for Unit 7, delta front for Unit 8, subtidal to intertidal at and surface soil for Unit 9 (Hori et al., 1999, 2001a).

Fig. 1. Location of borehole CM-97 and map of the Yangtze (Changjiang) delta. The area between the two dashed lines is the huge incised-valley of the Yangtze River, which was formed during the Last Glacial Maximum (after Li et al., 2000). The shadowed rectangle in the inset shows the location of the study area in China.

31837 0 29 00 N; longitude 121823 0 38 00 E, the elevation of 2.48 m), was taken by rotary drilling using drilling mud in 1997 on Chongming Island (Fig. 1). The CM-97 site is located inside the incised-valley formed during the Last Glacial Period (Fig. 1). Core recovery is about 90%. Detailed core description and radiocarbon dating are reported by Hori et al. (1999, 2001a,b). CM-97 was divided into nine stratigraphic units from bottom to top (Hori et al., 1999; Fig. 2). Radiocarbon ages show that CM-97 recorded the sedimentary environments of the Yangtze estuary for approximately 10 kyr, from 11.5 to 1.5 kyr bp (Hori et al., 1999, 2001a,b; Fig. 3). In general, borehole sediments consist of transgressive uvial sediments (Unit 1), transgressive estuarine sediments (Units 26), and regressive deltaic sediments (Units 79). Unit 1, formed prior to about 11 kyr bp, consists of ne to medium sand uvial sediments with clear highangle trough-cross bedding. Units 26, deposited during about 116 kyr bp, are transgressive estuarine sediments consisting of thinly alternating silt and clay layers with a few foraminifera. In detail, Unit 2 consists of inshore subtidal deposits, Unit 3 of muddy intertidal to subtidal deposits, Unit 4 of transgressive lag deposits, Unit 5 of muddy intertidal to

Altogether there were 39 subcores of samples from borehole CM-97. All the subcores were split into two halves. A total of 2543 sequentially numbered discrete samples were taken by continuously pressing 7 cm 3 plastic boxes into the face of the working half. Initial low eld magnetic susceptibility (K) and its anisotropy were rst measured using a KappaBridge KLY-3S susceptibility meter. The natural remanent magnetization (NRM) was then measured and demagnetized using a three-axis 2G Enterprises cryogenic magnetometer with an in-line alternating eld (AF) demagnetizer with a peak eld strength of 80 mT. All odd-numbered samples were subjected to incremental AF demagnetization at steps of 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 50, 60 and 80 mT. Following statistical and visual analysis of this detailed demagnetization spectrum, we found that most samples exhibited RM stability. Therefore, it was decided to treat the remaining samples (the even-numbered samples) at steps of 0, 20, 30 and 40 mT. Fig. 4 shows typical demagnetization behavior for these examples. The majority of samples showed a stable magnetization expressed as a single component that heads toward the origin of orthogonal plots (Zijderveld diagram, Zijderveld, 1976, Fig. 4Ba). Although they still exhibited a general steady decay toward the origin of the plot, the remaining samples either acquired some spurious magnetization at high elds (Fig. 4b) or behaved in an erratic manner because their magnetization was too weak and they acquired spurious magnetizations at low elds (Fig. 4c). Combined visual (using stereographic and orthogonal plots) and statistical (using the principal component analysis of Kirschvink, 1980) inspections of demagnetization data indicted that 20 mT AF demagnetization was sufcient to remove most of the

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Fig. 2. Column section with sedimentological features of borehole CM-97 (after Hori et al., 1999, 2001a,b).

viscous remanence and isolate the stable magnetic north direction for most samples. For the remaining samples, magnetic north had to be computed using the principal component analysis (Kirschvink, 1980) by

tting a line through a minimum of three consecutive steps and toward the origin of the orthogonal plot. Thus we could obtain the magnetic north of each sample. Then the relative magnetic north direction

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(Mean magnetic susceptibility, Nagata, 1961) q Pj exp {2n1 2 nm 2 1 n2 2 nm 2 1 n3 2 nm 2 }; (Corrected anisotropy degree, Jelinek, 1981) where n1 ln K1 ; n2 ln K2 ; n3 ln K3 ; nm n1 1 n2 1 n3 =3 L K1 =K2 (Magnetic lineation, Balsley and Buddington, 1960) F K2 =K3 (Magnetic foliation, Stacey et al., 1960) q K1 2 K2 =K1 1 K2 =2 2 K3 (Shape factor, Granar, 1958) Magnetic fabric of laboratory deposited materials have shown that the magnetic grains are mostly aligned within or close to the bedding plane, with their longer axes in the direction of ow, with some degree of imbrication (Rees, 1965; Rees and Woodall, 1975). More specically, the magnetic fabric parameters fall within specic ranges, such as 0.06 , q , 0.7 and the imbrication angle, the angle between horizontal and the plane of maximum-intermediate susceptibility, is less than 208 (Hamilton and Rees, 1970). These ranges have been widely adopted as being diagnostic of primary sedimentary fabrics when they are found in natural sediments, while values outside these ranges can generally be attributed to coring disturbances, bioturbation and the like or specically secondary fabrics. On the other hand, the depositional magnetic fabrics of most deposited sediments are characterized by clearly oblate susceptibility ellipsoids (Hrouda, 1982). In the present study, a foliated ellipsoid with q values ,0.7 and K3 directions lying within 258 of the vertical were considered indicative of a primary fabric that is credible in providing information on paleocurrent direction and depositional conditions (Hamilton and Rees, 1970; Hrouda, 1982; Tarling and Hrouda, 1993). Fig. 5 shows the features of F versus L of all the samples with primary AMS, from which we can see that all the samples have oblate ellipsoids, indicating primary depositional nature of these samples (Hrouda, 1982). Thus, only those samples that have a primary

Fig. 3. Accumulation curve of borehole CM-97 and sea-level curve in the East China Sea since 12 kyr bp. The accumulation curve is after Hori et al. (1999), while the sea-level curve is after Saito (1998).

at each sample level was calculated using the equation determined from linear tting of obtained magnetic north versus depth in order to correct the affection of paleosecular variation. This linear tting was done on each subcore as it has the same cut direction. And this relative magnetic north of each sample was used for reorientation of AMS directions of the relative sample to their geographic coordinates so as to obtain the absolute paleocurrent directions (Abdeldayem et al., 1999). Following the recommendation of Jelinek (1981), Ellwood et al. (1988) and Tarling and Hrouda (1993), the following set of AMS parameters that dene the mean magnetic susceptibility (K), the corrected anisotropy degree (Pj), the magnetic lineation (L), the magnetic foliation (F) and the ellipsoid shape (q) were calculated and used to evaluate the magnetic fabric of borehole CM-97 sediments: K K1 1 K2 1 K3 =3

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Fig. 4. Typical examples of directional and intensity changes during AF demagnetization of samples from borehole CM-97. (A) Normalized NRM intensity versus AF peak amplitudes. Sample number and NRM of each sample are shown in the plots. (B) Orthogonal projections (Zijderveld diagrams) of stepwise demagnetization of the same samples. Units of each sample are shown in the plots. The NRM measurement for each sample is marked with a larger symbol. Horizontal projections are marked with solid squares and vertical projections are marked with open squares.

magnetic fabric were used in paleocurrent determination for borehole CM-97 samples. There were a total of 664 samples with secondary AMS, which were mostly distributed on the top part of each subcore. Description of the primary sedimentary structures was done on the basis of detailed examination of X-ray photographs of samples. Paleocurrent directions, relative to the subcore section, were inferred from the dipping directions and angles of the foresets of cross lamination. Then paleocurrent direction of the sample located at the same horizon as the cross lamination was determined by using the in situ (un-reoriented) AMS data, so that we were able to compare the results inferred from the sedimentary structures and the in situ AMS data. In this case, we assumed that the cut section of each subcore was along the `eastwest' line, and the sample box was pressed into the subcore section towards the `north'. Thus, paleocurrent direction from both the primary sedimentary structures and the in situ AMS data were in the same coordinate system, and were comparable.

5.1. Comparison between the paleocurrent directions determined from the primary sedimentary structures and the in situ AMS data Sedimentary structures, especially the cross laminations with clear foresets that have current direction implications (Reineck and Singh, 1980; Allen, 1984; Reading, 1996) were observed and described based on detailed examination of X-ray photographs. In order to demonstrate the applicability of AMS in paleocurrent determination of CM-97 sediments, we selected one subcore (Subcore B30) to conduct detailed comparison between the paleocurrent directions from the primary sedimentary structures and the in situ AMS data, respectively (Fig. 6). Subcore B30 was located at the depth of 36.8037.50 m within stratigraphic Unit 6, and consisted of thinly interbedded coarse silt and silty clay. Firstly, we reconstructed the paleocurrents from

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Fig. 5. Flinn-type (F versus L) plot of the samples with primary AMS. It is very clear that all the samples have oblate ellipsoids, indicating their primary depositional nature.

primary sedimentary structures. We examined the Xray photos of Subcore B30 and found that there were three horizons with clear cross lamination at depths of (A) 36.86036.864 m, (B) 37.06837.071 m and (C) 37.07337.080 m, respectively (Fig. 6). Lamination A has a thickness of 4 mm, foreset laminae dipping to the right with an apparent dip angle of 158, indicating a paleocurrent directed to the right; Lamination B has a thickness of 3 mm, foreset laminae dipping to the right with an apparent dip angle of 108, also indicating a paleocurrent owing to the right; Lamination C has a thickness of 7 mm, foreset laminae dipping to the left with an apparent dip angle of about 308, indicating a paleocurrent towards the left (Fig. 6). These

data clearly show that there were bi-directional ows and these sediments were deposited under bi-directional currents (Fig. 6). Secondly, we reconstructed the downhole paleocurrents of Subcore B30 based on the in situ AMS data, i.e. axes of the magnetic ellipsoid were in the subcore coordinate system, to compare the paleocurrent directions between sedimentary structures and the in situ AMS data. These downhole paleocurrent directions were determined from the declination of K1 (Fig. 6). Results show that the paleocurrent of the sample at Horizon A was to the right, and that of combined sample B and C was to the left (Fig. 6), indicating that paleocurrent directions from sedimentary structures

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Fig. 6. Detailed comparison between the paleocurrent directions from primary sedimentary structures and the in situ AMS data for Subcore B30 samples from CM-97. Photos of the primary sedimentary structures were enlarged so as to make them clearer. Paleocurrent directions relative to the core section from these sedimentary structures are shown with arrows: A, right; B, right; C, left. The downhole paleocurrent directions are inferred from in situ AMS data (K1). A and C are in good agreement with the AMS results. In situ declinations and inclinations at 20 mT AF eld demagnetization of the corresponding samples are also shown in the right part of the plot.

and AMS were in good accordance. Laminations B and C were combined within one single AMS sample (the thickness of one AMS sample is 20 mm), so only one average paleocurrent direction could be inferred
Table 1 Statistics of primary cross laminations that have similar paleocurrent directions to those determined from the in situ AMS data Cross lamination numbers Totally Thickness $ 10 mm Thickness , 10 m 41 16 25 Numbers with similar paleocurrent directions 27 15 14 Percentage

65.9 93.8 56.0

from the AMS data. B was much thinner than C, thus the paleocurrent direction from AMS showed the predominated C direction. Furthermore, there were a total of 41 horizons where primary sedimentary cross laminations were observed, among which 27 (about 65.9%) had similar paleocurrent directions to those determined from the in situ AMS data (Table 1). Among the 41 cross laminations, 16 has a thickness of equal to or greater than 10 mm, of which 15 (about 93.8%) has similar paleocurrent directions to those determined from the in situ AMS data (Table 1). Even 56% of those cross laminations with a thickness of less than 10 mm shows similar paleocurrent directions to those determined from the in situ AMS data (Table 1). These results

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indicate that the absolute paleocurrent directions inferred from the reoriented AMS data represent the true current directions. 5.2. Paleocurrent reconstruction for each stratigraphic unit The paleocurrent directions for the nine stratigraphic units were established from the reoriented AMS data, based on paleomagnetically oriented K1 and K3 for samples that satised the afore-mentioned criteria for a primary fabric. K1 axes display a moderate to complete girdle on the lower hemisphere equalarea projections of K1 and K3 (Fig. 7). Absolute paleocurrent direction was estimated from the imbrication of K3 in the plot of lower hemisphere equal-area projections of reoriented K1 and K3 (open arrows in Fig. 7). Rose diagram of K1 was also done to show the azimuthal distribution of K1 axes (Fig. 7). Preferred imbrication that enables absolute current estimation could also be observed for quite a few units (Fig. 7). Note that there is a slight disagreement between the absolute paleocurrent directions (open arrows in Fig. 7) and the azimuthal K1 axes rose diagrams (Fig. 7). This is because the absolute directions take into account imbrications and are more realistic. The following is a summary of AMS patterns and paleocurrent evaluation for each unit in borehole CM-97 (Fig. 7). Unit 1: K1 axes display a girdle. K1 axes are mostly along the NS in the rose diagram, which also shows a subordinate EW trend. The K3 axes, on the other hand, are very steep to vertical with no clear imbrication. Such a pattern reects a predominant NS running paleocurrent that seems to have oscillated back and forth for short intervals, yet no absolute current direction could be inferred from the AMS data (Fig. 7). Unit 2: K1 axes display a moderate girdle, while its azimuthal distribution in the rose diagram shows a good grouping along the SEENWW. K3 axes slightly tilted toward the NW away from vertical, which shows a weak imbrication indicating a probable absolute NW paleocurrent direction (Fig. 7). Unit 3: K1 axes are grouped along the NEE while K3 axes are clearly tilted toward NWW indicating a predominant NWW paleocurrent direction (Fig. 7). Unit 4: K1 axes display a moderate girdle. K1 axes

are mostly to the east with a clear imbrication of K3 axes that indicates a strong paleocurrent trending generally westward. Rose diagram also shows a subordinate NWWSEE running paleocurrent that might have occurred for short periods (Fig. 7). Unit 5: K1 axes display a moderate girdle. Although extending over a wide range of azimuths, the K1 axes show a higher concentration along the EW trend. The K3 axes, on the other hand, show a slight tilt toward the west marking a predominant paleocurrent in this direction (Fig. 7). Unit 6: Similar to Unit 5 but with a better constrained ow. Unit 7: K1 axes display a moderate girdle. K1 axes extend over a wide range with a pronounced SWNE concentration, accentuated by the rose diagram. A slight imbrication that reects a NW owing paleocurrent can also be observed for the K3 axes (Fig. 7). Unit 8: K1 axes are broadly grouped around an easterly direction with a general tendency for the K3 axes to slightly imbricate toward the NWW, marking a relatively strong paleocurrent in this direction (Fig. 7). Unit 9: K1 axes are widely distributed around an easterly trend. K3 axes display a pronounced imbrication that marks a strong paleocurrent owing toward the west (Fig. 7). In summary, the predominant paleocurrent directions for the tide-dominated estuarine and deltaic sediments in the borehole were westerly or northwesterly, and generally parallel or oblique to the azimuth of K1 axes shown in the rose diagrams. However, no absolute paleocurrent direction could be obtained for the uvial sediments from CM-97. 5.3. The mean magnetic susceptibility (MS), the anisotropy degree, the magnetic lineation, the magnetic foliation, the ellipsoid shape parameter and their sedimentological implications The mean magnetic susceptibility (K, or MS) changes positively with grain size (Fig. 8). For the whole borehole section, the maximum MS value is 3139 10 26 SI, minimum is 228 10 26 SI, and the average is about 560 10 26 SI. The lowest values of MS occur in stratigraphic Unit 7 (Fig. 8), which is the nest in whole borehole section (Fig. 2), with an average value of about 346 1026 SI. The highest values of MS occur in stratigraphic Unit 1 (Fig. 8), which is the

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Fig. 7. Paleocurrent directions from the reoriented AMS data for the nine stratigraphic units in borehole CM-97. Upper: Lower hemisphere equal-area stereographic projections of K1 (solid square) and K3 (solid circle), showing absolute paleocurrent directions with open arrows. Lower: Rose diagrams showing the azimuthal distribution of K1 axes.

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Fig. 8. Downhole changes of the mean magnetic susceptibility (K), the corrected anisotropy degree (Pj), the magnetic lineation (L), the magnetic foliation (F) and the magnetic ellipsoid shape parameter (q). These changes clearly mark the dened stratigraphic boundaries (after Hori et al., 1999, 2001a,b), which are shown with dashed lines. The stratigraphic units are shown on the right hand side with numbers.

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coarsest in the borehole (Fig. 2), with an average value of about 955 10 26 SI. In general, the mean MS exhibits clear changes at horizon where lithology changes. Both the corrected anisotropy degree (Pj) and the magnetic foliation (F) also change with grain size, i.e. the general trend increases with a decrease in grain size (Fig. 8). The lowest, highest and average values are 1.015, 1.208 and 1.089 for Pj, and 1.009, 1.173 and 1.067 for F, respectively. Unlike the mean MS, Pj and F, there seem to be no change in the magnetic lineation (L) and the shape parameter (q) with grain-size, although there are large downhole changes in both L and q (Fig. 8). The lowest, highest and average values are 1.000, 1.067 and 1.015 for L, and 0.005, 0.700 and 0.226 for q, respectively. The eight stratigraphic boundaries from stratigraphic Units 19 can be recognized clearly from the characteristic downhole changes in K, Pj, L, F and q, but particularly in K, Pj and F (Fig. 8). The K value increases at the horizon where grain size increases for each stratigraphic unit, even at the erosion surface within Unit 4 (Figs. 2 and 8). Sharp boundaries in K are identical to changes in lithology. For example, the boundary between stratigraphic Units 1 and 2, and the boundary between the Units 7 and 8 (Fig. 8) show marked changes in K. The changing patterns of Pj and F also correspond to changes between stratigraphic units although both parameters have changes within individual units, e.g. within Unit 7 (Fig. 8). Although the downhole changes of L and q are not so clearly related to lithology, some boundaries can also be recognized from their curves, such as, the boundaries between Units 1 and 2, and between Units 8 and 9 (Fig. 8). All of these changes made it possible for us to easily recognize the stratigraphic boundaries throughout the CM-97 borehole (Figs. 2 and 8).

6.1. Paleocurrents and estimated sedimentary paleoenvironments It has been demonstrated that core samples could be reoriented to their geographical coordinates by using remanent magnetization (Hailwood and Ding, 1995;

Rolph et al., 1995). In this study, paleocurrent directions were determined from the reoriented AMS data by using the relative magnetic north instead of the in situ magnetic north. Relative magnetic north of each sample was calculated from the equation determined from the linear tting of obtained magnetic north versus depth on each subcore. We used the relative magnetic north in order to correct the affection of paleosecular variation. The AMS data indicates that most of the Yangtze estuarine and deltaic sediments were deposited under a relatively strong current that mostly owed toward the west to northwest direction. Sedimentary facies showed most of the CM-97 sediments were inuenced by tidal uxes (Hori et al., 1999; Hori et al., 2001a,b). Moreover, other borehole data from the Yangtze delta area also showed similar effects on sediment facies (Li et al., 2000; Hori et al., 2001a,b). Present sedimentary environments in the Yangtze estuary indicate that strong tidal currents are dominant and therefore foraminifera living in coastal seas of the East China Sea are transported into the estuary by ooding tidal currents (Li and Wang, 1998). Moreover, paleo-tidal patterns at 6 and 10 kyr bp for the Yangtze estuary estimated through numerical simulation, also showed tidal domination and similar pattern, but with a different magnitude (Uehara et al., 2000). Thus it can be concluded that the estimated west to northwest paleocurrent directions were induced from the ood-tidal currents throughout the last 12 ka. Based on the above-mentioned conclusion, the sedimentary paleo-environments and their paleocurrent directions have been estimated for each of the nine stratigraphic units, and are as follows. Unit 1: The reason why no absolute ow direction could be inferred from AMS for the uvial sediments of this unit may be due to the complicated riverine processes characterized with a strong transverse circulation (Huang et al., 1996) or coarser grain size with high-angle trough cross bedding. Units 26: The westerly or northwesterly paleocurrent directions inferred from the AMS data may have resulted from a ood tidal current-induced fabric structure. This is evident from the sedimentological and paleontological characteristics of these units that indicate a strong tidal inuence during the last transgression at about 116 kyr bp (Hori et al., 2001b; Figs. 2 and 3). Furthermore, tidal currents during the

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Holocene transgression stage were inferred to be much stronger than those at present, with an average tidal range of more than 4 m at that time (Li et al., 2001). Units 79: These units constitute a regressive deltaic succession. An estimated west to northwest paleocurrent reects an onshore ow direction, consistent with ood-tidal current. Because the modern environment in the Yangtze estuary and delta is tide-dominated, ood tidal currents transport marine particles like foraminifera into the estuary for a distance of up to 200 km (Li et al., 1983). Floodtidal currents during spring tide were measured 230 km upstream from the Yangtze River mouth in the March of 1982 (the dry season), while 200 km upstream in the August of 1983 (the ood season) (Li and Wang, 1998). As shown by sedimentary structures of wave ripples in Unit 9 (Hori et al., 2001a), other processes such as waves action and river currents may have also inuenced these sediments. 6.2. MS and AMS parameters In this study, we considered that the primary AMS represented the primary deposition nature of sediments, thus could supply us with reliable paleocurrent directions. The above-mentioned criteria for a primary magnetic fabric have been widely accepted as indicator of depositional nature of sediments (Hamilton and Rees, 1970; Hrouda, 1982; Tarling and Hrouda, 1993). CM-97 Samples with secondary AMS were mostly distributed on the top part of each subcore, which may most probably resulted from coring disturbance, similar to deep sea sediments reported elsewhere (Abdeldayem et al., 1999). Interestingly, it has been found that there were better `primary' AMS features with the development of bioturbation in experimental tidal at sediments, which was induced by the re-alignment of magnetic minerals under the action of bioturbation and pore water (Ellwood, 1984). However, there is not so much bioturbation in the natural CM-97 sediments (Hori et al., 2001a,b). Therefore, we thought that the above-mentioned criteria for primary AMS were still valid for this study, and the primary AMS results are also valid and reliable. Magnetic susceptibility has been successfully used in stratigraphic division and correlation in the Chinese and American loesspaleosol sequences (Heller and

Liu, 1982; Heller et al., 1991; Bloemendal et al., 1995; Grimley et al., 1998), continental shelf sedi ments (Arai et al., 1997), deep-sea sediments (Barthes et al., 1999), and in Paleozoic marine sequences (Crick et al., 1997; Ellwood et al., 1999). In this study, we found that not only magnetic susceptibility, but also other AMS parameters could be used in stratigraphic division. K and other AMS parameters reect the grain size and perhaps mineral assemblage as well. This was inferred from the fact that samples where demagnetization behavior showed very low intensities (Fig. 4c) mainly distributed in the stratigraphic Unit 1 (Fig. 2), but quite few such samples occurred in other stratigraphic units. This may extend the use of AMS in stratigraphic division and maybe also in stratigraphic correlation in addition to paleocurrent determination. Remarkable similarity in downhole changes of Pj and F indicates that the AMS of the sediments studied here was induced by magnetic foliation that probably formed due to compaction processes, a mechanism that has been recognized in deep-sea sediments (Ellwood, 1979; Abdeldayem et al., 1999).

The AMS analysis was applied to tidal-dominated coastal sediments of late PleistoceneHolocene incised-valley ll from the Yangtze delta, China (borehole CM-97). Based on the comparison between the paleocurrent directions from the primary sedimentary structures and the in situ AMS data, we have shown that AMS analysis is applicable in determining paleocurrent directions for these sediments. Throughout borehole CM-97 sediments, the dominated paleocurrent directions were westerly to northwesterly for transgressive estuarine and regressive deltaic sediments. This is estimated to be mainly due to ood tidal currents in the paleo- and modern Yangtze (Changjiang) estuary. No absolute paleocurrent direction could be inferred from AMS for the uvial coarse sediments. These results indicate that the sedimentary paleoenvironment since about 11 kyr bp was a ood-tide dominated estuary or delta. In addition, we have demonstrated that AMS can be useful in stratigraphic division and may also be in stratigraphic correlation. Our work indicates that in

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The authors are grateful to staff of Marine Geology Laboratory of Tongji University, Shanghai, China for their great help during the coring and subsampling. The authors are also grateful to Dr Brooks B. Ellwood and an anonymous reviewer whose critical review has greatly improved the manuscript. This research is funded by the Global Environment Research Fund of the Environment Agency of Japan. B. Liu would like to express his special thanks to STA/JST/JISTEC of Japan that made it possible for him to conduct this study under the STA Fellowship. Demagnetization data analysis was carried out by using Dr R. Enkin 0 s PC program (http://www.pgc.emr.ca/tectonic/ enkin.htm). Fig. 1 was created by using GMT (http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/gmt/).

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