ORIGIN, DEVELOPMENT AND EVOLUTIONARY MODEL OF SHELF DESERTIZATION ENVIRONMENT IN LATE-STAGE OF UPPER PLEISTOCENE

Based on the study of palaeo-environmental evolution in the shelves of the Eastern China Seas, the concept of ''shelf desertization'' in the late stage of Upper Pleistocene is defined; the environmental backgro und and evolutionary process of shelf desertization are analysed. Stud y on the records of subbottom profiling and the data of core samples f rom shelf areas revealed that during low sea-level stages, the sedimen tary environment in the exposed shelf plains was dominated by aeolian depositional process under cold and dry climatic conditions, i.e. unde r the action of strong winter-monsoon winds. Parts of the exposed mari ne strata were disintegrated, and aeolian sand dunes were formed on th e disintegrated marine deposits, from which the finer sediment grains were blown away by wind and deposited in the downwind areas to form th e derivative loess deposits. Thus a desertization environmental system was formed in the exposed shelf plains of the Eastern China Seas.