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Arid Land Geography ›› 2021, Vol. 44 ›› Issue (2): 389-399.doi: 10.12118/j.issn.1000–6060.2021.02.10

• Earth Surface Process • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Analysis of sand source for Badain Jaran Desert based on CMB model

NING Kai1,2,3,4(),WANG Naiang3,4(),LI Zhuolun3,4,YANG Zhenjing1,2,BI Zhiwei1,2,WANG Yixin3,4,WANG Pan1,2,SUN Jie3,4   

  1. 1. Key Laboratory of Quaternary Chronology and Hydro-Environmental Evolution, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Shijiazhuang 050061, Hebei, China
    2. Institute of Hydrogeology and Environmental Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Shijiazhuang 050061, Hebei, China
    3. College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu, China
    4. Research Center for Glacier and Desert, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu, China
  • Received:2020-05-13 Revised:2020-11-15 Online:2021-03-25 Published:2021-04-14
  • Contact: Naiang WANG E-mail:care1909@hotmail.com;wangna@lzu.edu.cn

Abstract:

Desert ecosystems play an important role in global and regional environments due to their high albedo, low specific heat capacity, and high dust output. As the second largest mobile desert in China, the source of sediment in the Badain Jaran Desert has always been a subject of interest in earth science research. In this paper, the composition of surface sediments collected from the Badain Jaran Desert and surrounding areas were analyzed to identify their provenance, and the chemical mass balance model was used to estimate the contribution rates of source or sources. The results show that the main minerals in the surface sediments of the Badain Jaran Desert include relatively stable albite, albite, anorthite, anorthoclase, biotite, clinoenstatite, enstatite, microcline, muscovite, orthoclase, quartz, titanite, and non-regionally representative clinochlore, gypsum, hornblende, calcite, and halite, and the main provenances include desert lacustrine plain sands, alluvial plain sands, modern lake sediments, exogenous sands, and weathered rock crusts. The weathered rock crusts and modern lake sediments belong to in situ sanding and thus only affects the surrounding area. Alluvial sand from north of the desert and exogenous sand from the northwest are the main sources of the Badain Jaran Desert sands. These are very different from the desert sediments in the eastern parts of China which are attributed to lake sedimentation and may be related to the evolution of the desert, the scale of retreat of lakes in the region throughout geological history, and the climate and environmental conditions.

Key words: minerals, aeolian sand, CMB model, provenance analysis, Badain Jaran Desert