The hydrogen and oxygen isotopic compositions of hydroxyl in clay mineral from a weathering profile: New proxies for paleo-climate change?

• DOI: 10.1007/s11631-017-0166-2
• Publication Date: 2017-04-26T03:51:41Z
• Authors: Chengfan Yang; Shouye Yang; Ni Su
• Keywords: 13. Climate action; 01 natural sciences; 0105 earth and related environmental sciences

Recent studies suggest that the hydrogen and oxygen isotopic compositions of clay minerals can indicate paleoclimate. Here, we report mineralogy and stable isotopic records (δD and δ18OOH) of a weathering profile located in the Fujian Province, aiming to validate whether hydroxyl stable isotopes can indicate paleo-precipitation and paleo-temperature. Our results indicate that the δD and δ18OOH changes in the kaolinite hydroxyl of the weathering profile are basically determined by the isotopic composition of paleo-meteoric water and paleo-temperature, respectively. Nevertheless, whether the δD and δ18OOH of kaolinite can quantitatively indicate paleo-precipitation and paleo-temperature needs to be verified further, and especially, the structural oxygen isotopic composition that is the essential element for the kaolinite formation temperature calculation has to be constrained in future work.