Date
2019
Project
4.2K Paleoclimate Project
Component
Data
Sponsor
None
Award Number
None
Document Type
Dataset
Abstract
The Hunshandake Sandy Lands of northeastern China, currently a semiarid lightly vegetated region, were characterized by perennial lakes and forest stands in the early and middle Holocene. Well-developed dark grassland-type paleosols (mollisols) at the southern edge of the Hunshandake OSL-dated to between 6.93 +0.61 and 4.27 +0.38 ka along with lacustrine sands at higher elevations that date to between 5.7 +0.3 and 5.2 +0.2 ka and thick gray lacustrine sediments suggest a wetter climate. Between 4.2 and 3.8 ka, the region experienced extreme drying that was exacerbated by lake overflow drainage and sapping that depleted the groundwater table. The region supported a robust population, the Hongshan Culture, but was depopulated post 4.2 ka with migration likely to the Yellow River Valley where the Hongshan introduced their characteristic cultural elements to early Chinese civilization. Evidence for extreme and sudden environmental change in northeastern China, at and following the 4.2 ka BP Event and like that we document in the Hunshandake, is widespread. However, no comprehensive overview of this climatic episode exists. Here, we discuss the relevant events in northeastern China and capture them in a spatially explicit Geographic Information Systems database that can be used to analyze the timing and spatial pattern of climate and environmental change associated with the 4.2 ka BP Event. This approach could serve as a prototype for a global 4.2 ka BP Event database.
Associated Publications
Clim. Past, 15, 1–9, 2019 https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-15-1-2019
Recommended Citation
Louis A. Scuderi, Xiaoping Yang, Samantha E. Ascoli, and Hongwei Li, 2019. The 4.2 kaBP Event in northeastern China: a geospatial perspective. Clim. Past, 15, 1–9.
Permanent URL
https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/paleoclimate/
ne_bcmidpr01.zip (11798 kB)
ne_bcmidtmax01.zip (33274 kB)
ne_bcmidtmin01.zip (32220 kB)
nechina_Streams.zip (8874 kB)
tmax1Modern.zip (29916 kB)
tmean1Modern.zip (30441 kB)
tmin1Modern.zip (29423 kB)
Analysis_Sites_Shape files.zip (32124 kB)
Comments
Datasets for paleoclimatic analysis of NE China and specifically the 4.2bp ka event. Data is in Zipped format and designed to run in an ARCMap 10.4 or higher processing environment. Rasters are stored as native Geotiffs. Vector data stored as ARCMap shapefiles.