REGIONAL CORRELATION OF THE HOLOCENE SEDIMENTARY RECORD, SUNDA SHELF, SOUTH CHINA SEA

The Sunda Shelf of the southern South China Sea, Southeast Asia, is one of the largest shelf seas in the western Pacific. Studying the Holocene sedimentological record of this region can provide insights into paleoclimatic changes related to the East Asian monsoon (EAM). Understanding the EAM and its control on precipitation, continental run-off, nutrient transport, and sea circulation is critical for projections of future climatic changes. However, local factors can overprint the regional climatic signal. In order to identify regional and local scale changes, seven cores of Holocene sediment were collected in the eastern and western margins of the Sunda Shelf. Three ca. 3 meter mud-dominated piston cores from northwest-southeast trending incised valleys off Bintulu, Sarawak, Malaysia and four ca. 3 meter gravity cores from an incised valley offshore of northeast Peninsular Malaysia are being studied. Preliminary results of bulk sediment magnetic susceptibility (BMS) data suggest changes occurring concomitant with regional to global climatic changes whereas isotopic data from planktonic foraminifera exhibit little change over the last 10,000 years. Additional isotopic data are being acquired from benthic foraminifera and might provide further insights on climatic changes suggested by the BMS results.