SEDIMENTARY PROPERTIES AND ENVIRONMENTAL VARIATIONS FROM CONTINENTAL SLOPE TO DEEP SEA PLAIN IN THE NORTHERN SOUTH CHINA SEA SINCE LATE PLEISTOCENE

The South China Sea is the westernmost marginal sea in the west Pacific Ocean. On thebasis of the analyses of sedimentary components, biofossils, oxygen-carbon isotopes and theirdatings in four seafloor cores which were collected from the deep sea plain to continentalslope in the northern South China Sea, the environmental variations were basically similarto other tropical ocean areas, and their cycle changes in about the ages of 40 ka and 20 kawere more apparent since the late Pleistocene. During the warm climates, the depositionrate on the continental slope was about 2.6 times as rapid as on the deep sea plain margin.The seafloor in the deep sea plain was below the CaCO_3 compensation depth. During thecold periods, however, the deposition rate on the deep sea plain margin was slightly quickerthan on the continental slope due to the sea level reduction on a larger scale and moresupply of the terrigenous clastics.