title: Preliminary identification of palaeofloods with the alkane ratio C31/C17 and their potential link to global climate changes.
abstract: A major challenge in palaeohydrology is the extraction of continuous palaeoflood information from geophysical records. A high-resolution sediment core off the Minjiang estuary area in the Taiwan Strait, SE China, records the sedimentation history from approximately 1660 to the present. The alkane ratio C31/C17, a classic organic geochemical indicator of terrestrial/aquatic matter, peaks in the layers dating as 1876-1878 and 1968-1970, suggesting the large terrestrial input to the Minjiang estuary area by huge flood transporting during the each peak interval. Historical archives are consistent with this interpretations and record catastrophic floods in the Minjiang River during both intervals. Furthermore between 1876-1878 there were floods in southern China and droughts in northern China, as well as throughout Asia, Africa, Australia, and the Americas. The 1876-1878 catastrophic flood of the Minjiang River may therefore has been the local response to global climate anomalies during that time interval.
authors.affiliation: 1] Third Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration (SOA), China [2].
authors.forename: Jianjun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: 1] Third Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration (SOA), China [2].
authors.forename: Liqi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Third Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration (SOA), China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Third Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration (SOA), China.
authors.forename: Jianhua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Third Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration (SOA), China.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Bureau of Hydrology and Water Resources Survey of Fujian Province, Fuzhou, China.
authors.forename: Chuanjie
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Third Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration (SOA), China.
authors.forename: Weiguo
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Waterloo, Canada.
authors.forename: Sabrina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Third Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration (SOA), China.
authors.forename: Yiliang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China.
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhang