HIGH-RESOLUTION CLIMATE RECORD FROM THE BEIJING AREA DURING THE LAST GLACIAL-INTERGLACIAL CYCLE

The Zhaitang loess section, located in the western suburbs of Beijing has yielded a very high resolution magnetic susceptibility record for the last-glacial and interglacial period. All substages can be clearly defined in marine isotope stage (MIS) 5 (S1) and even also in substag e 5a, demonstrating comparable detail with Vostok and parts of the GRI P ice record. Rapid climate shifts during the Eemian period may have e xtended to continental Asia, but exerted only a weak influence on the Zhaitang record. Abrupt climate transitions (5b/5c/5d/5e) recorded in this section from the NE edge of the Plateau show more detrial than mo st other Chinese loess records. These three well defined peaks in subs tage 5a, imply sensitivity of the east Asian monsoon to rapid hemisphe re-scale climate change and the prospect of finding more information o n orbital and non-orbital events in the loess sequence.