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Helium isotope investigation on magnetic reversal boundaries of loess-paleosol sequence at Luochuan, central Chinese Loess Plateau

  • Articles
  • Geology
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Chinese Science Bulletin

Abstract

Extraterrestrial particles have higher 3He/4He ratios than those of terrestrial sediments (> 100 Ra versus < 0.03 Ra, where Ra is the 3He/4He ratio normalized to the atmospheric value of 1.4×10−6). The interplanetary dust particles (IDPs), which are very rich in 3He, continuously bombard the Earth and can accumulate in deposits. IDPs sedimentation rate changes can significantly influence 3He concentration in the Earth surface sediments. Since IDPs are not easy to detect in terrestrial deposits, measuring helium isotopes is a helpful approach to examine changes in IDPs. Helium concentration and helium isotopic composition magnetic substances and the quartz particles were examined for helium concentration and helium isotopic ratio. Results show that the 3He/4He ratio and the 3He concentrations of the magnetic substances are clearly higher than those of the bulk samples and the quartz particles, and, the 3He/4He ratio of the extracted magnetic substances is also higher than that of the average level of the Earth’s crust. The higher helium content in the magnetic fractions can be explained by an influx of IDPs.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an, 710075, China

    Du XueQing & Lu HuaYu

  2. College of Marine Geosciences, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, 266003, China

    Wang YongHong

  3. National Natural Science Foundation of China, Beijing, 100085, China

    Ren JianGuo

  4. Lanzhou Research Center for Petroleum and Natural Gas Resources, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Ye XianRen

  5. Key Laboratory of Coast and Island Development, School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, China

    Lu HuaYu

  6. Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Du XueQing

Authors
  1. Du XueQing
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  2. Wang YongHong
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  3. Ren JianGuo
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  4. Ye XianRen
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  5. Lu HuaYu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lu HuaYu.

Additional information

Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 40173006 and 40325007), Key Research Project of Ministry of Education, China (Grant No. 03106) and National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2004CB720506)

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Du, X., Wang, Y., Ren, J. et al. Helium isotope investigation on magnetic reversal boundaries of loess-paleosol sequence at Luochuan, central Chinese Loess Plateau. CHINESE SCI BULL 52, 2407–2412 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-007-0319-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-007-0319-5

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