Sedimentary signals of the upwelling along the Zhejiang coast, China

The muddy deposits of the Zhe-Min coastal area are of great importance to understand "source to sink" processes. However, the sedimentary processes that dominate along the Zhejiang coast remain controversial. Determining sedimentation rates is an important element of our understanding of sedimentary processes and deposition patterns. Therefore, 23 vibrocores were collected from the muddy area along the Zhejiang coast to analyse their sedimentation rates using ²¹⁰Pb geochronology. The spatial distribution of the sedimentation rates derived from the 23 vibrocores, as well as previously published data, demonstrated that the middle part of the study area around 29°N experienced relatively high sedimentation rates, which has never been reported in previous studies. This location of high sedimentation rates is approximately consistent with that of the Holocene maximum thickness deposition, finest surface sediments and high concentration of chlorophyll, resulting from the existence of upwelling along the Zhejiang coast besides the fluvial inputs.