QUATERNARY STRATIGRAPHY AND DIVISION IN CHINA

There are many kinds of Quaternary sediments in China, such as loess, laterite, lacustrine, fluvial, marine, glacial, cave, volcanic and other sediments. Among them, loess and lacusteine sediments have wide distribution, large thickness with almost complete sequence and long term continuity. The loess-paleosol sequence can be subdivided to 74 alternative loess or paleosol layers at least and three units named Wucheng Huangtuan, Lishi Huangtuan and Malan Huangtuan from the bottom to the top in loess plateau. The perfect profile of lacusteine sediments with rich biological fossil can be found in Nihewan, North China. Quaternary in China used to be divided into four parts: Early Pleistocene (Q1), Middle Pleistocene (Q2), Late Pleistocene (Q3) and Holocene (Q4). This division is unconformity with international dichotomy of Pleistocene (Q1) and Holocene (Q2). To avoid confusion, it has been suggested that Qp substitute for Q1 (Pleistocene), Qp1, Qp2, Qp3 for original Q1, Q2, Q3 and Qh for Q2 (Holocene) ie original Q4. The Pleistocene/ Pliocene boundary is suggested at 2.6MaB.P. corresponding to Gauss/Matuyama and loess/red clay boundaries, and the bottom of the MIS 104 instead of 1.8~1.6MaB.P corresponding to the top of Olduvai and the bottom of paleosol S24 and MIS62. Qp2/Qp1 boundary is at 0.78MaB.P. corresponding to Brunhes / Matuyama, the bottom of paleosol S7 and MIS19. Qp3/Qp2 boundary is at 0.128MaB.P. corresponding to the bottom of paleosol S1 and the beginning of MIS 5e. Qh/Qp boundary is at 0.011MaB.P. corresponding to the bottom of paleosol S0 and MIS1.