Late Quaternary environmental evolution of the Sea of Japan and its controlling mechanisms-- 科学与技术前沿论坛

Late Quaternary environmental evolution of the Sea of Japan and its controlling mechanisms

报告简介：

The Sea of Japan is a unique semi-enclosed marginal sea in the Northwestern Pacific. Through collaboration of China and Russia, systematic studies were conducted on several sediment cores from the Sea of Japan. These studies reveal that various regions within the Sea of Japan experienced significant changes during the Late Quaternary, in terms of terrigenous sources detrita, surface hydrology, vertical water mass structure, deep-water ventilation, sea-ice activity, and surrounding terrestrial vegetation, occurring at both orbital and millennial timescales. The research identified the timing of the Tsushima Warm Current intrusion into the Sea of Japan and reconstructed its paleoenvironmental evolution history. It was found that the environmental evolution of the Sea of Japan is primarily controlled by three factors: eustatic sea level, the East Asian monsoon, and the Tsushima Warm Current. However, different regions of the Sea responded differently to these factors. The eustatic sea level acts as the first-order factor influencing the environmental evolution of the Sea of Japan, directly affecting the degree of exchange and material transport between the Sea of Japan and surrounding waters. The East Asian summer monsoon impacts the surface hydrology of the Sea of Japan and the vegetation evolution of the surrounding land, while the East Asian winter monsoon influences sea-ice activity in the western part of the Sea of Japan and vertical convection of the deep water masses. Since 8,000 years ago, both the Tsushima Warm Current and the Liman Cold Current have become important factors influencing the environmental evolution of the Sea of Japan. This study highlights the complex interplay of various climatic and oceanographic factors in shaping the environmental changes of this region, providing valuable insights into how these factors interact and influence each other over long periods.

报告人简介：

石学法

Xuefa Shi is a Research Professor at the First Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, serving as the Director of the Key Laboratory of Marine Geology and Metallogeny and the Curator of the China Ocean Sample Repository. He has dedicated his career to marine geology and deep-sea mineralization, with research interests that include marine sedimentation, past global changes, and mineralization of deep-sea rare earth element (REE) deposits. As Chief Scientist of more than 20 marine scientific expeditions, he has led comprehensive investigations of sedimentary geology along Asian continental margins, including the northeastern Arctic shelf, the northwestern Pacific, and the northeastern Indian Ocean. His research has advanced the understanding of the “source-to-sink” processes of sediment transport and environmental evolution in these regions. In recent years, he has carried out deep-sea REE resource surveys, identifying extensive REE-rich sediments in the central Indian Ocean basin, the western Pacific, and the southeastern Pacific. He has delineated four global deep-sea rare earth metallogenic belts and evaluated their resource potential. His work has contributed to a preliminary understanding of the spatial distribution, REE hosting phases, mineralization processes, and enrichment mechanisms of deep-sea REE-rich sediments. Additionally, he has played a leading role in the establishment and operation of the China Ocean Sample Repository, making contributions to the sharing and accessibility of deep-sea sample resources.