Expansion of Dust Provenance and Aridification of Asia Since ~7.2 Ma Revealed by Detrital Zircon U‐Pb Dating

Abstract

Abstract The relative importance of global cooling and Tibetan Plateau uplift in driving the aridification of Asia during the late Cenozoic is debated, largely due to the lack of appropriate proxy indicators. Here we address this problem by investigating changes in the source of Chinese loess and Red Clay, which is directly controlled by changes in the extent and distribution of the arid zone of Asia and the intensity of the East Asian winter monsoon, using zircon U‐Pb dating of 27 levels in a near‐continuous eolian sedimentary sequence in southern Chinese Loess Plateau. The results show that source regions expanded stepwise at ~7.2, ~2.6, 1.2–0.9 Ma, and at the Last Glacial Maximum. These changes were synchronous with global cooling and ice cover expansion in the Northern Hemisphere, suggesting that the drivers of aridification of the Asian interior were intimately related to global cooling in the late Cenozoic.