Fluxes of clay minerals in the South China Sea

Abstract In order to assess dominant settling processes that change the composition of the detrital clay fraction during transport from neighboring estuaries to a deep sea basin, we studied relative clay mineral abundances and absolute clay mineral fluxes of clay-sized sinking particulate matter collected by eight sediment trap systems deployed from shallow to deep water depth in the South China Sea. This is the first basin-wide study on recent sedimentation processes in the western Pacific marginal seas. Annual averages of relative clay mineral abundances at the shallow traps are temporally more variable and regionally more diverse, resembling those of surrounding drainage basins. In contrast, higher fluxes of material reach the deeper traps. Their characteristics trend temporally and spatially towards uniformity and are enriched with smectite in the entire deep basin. Sinking particulate matter that reaches the shallow traps spends less time in pelagic transport and is affected by monsoonal current reversals. The enrichment in smectite in the deeper traps is a result of longer duration in transport at low velocities, which may increase the effect of differential settling during transport. The trend is caused by lateral advection driven by the cyclonic deep circulation, and this is considered as the main transport process in the northern and central deep basin. The high fluxes in the south-western deep basin could be the result of laterally advected re-suspended sediments from the neighboring shelves. The effects on the composition of the detrital clay fraction caused by oceanographic control, which indirectly include those by differential settling, mask the climatic signal from surrounding drainage basins in the deep basin sediments. This strongly affects the interpretation of the clay mineralogical record in sediments deposited under recent conditions in the South China Sea deep basin.