Recent progress of ¹⁰Be tracer studies in Chinese loess

Studies of cosmogenic ¹⁰Be in Chinese loess began about twenty-five years ago and since then a number of research groups worldwide have contributed to a firm understanding of the production, transport, deposition and storage of ¹⁰Be in loess. The essential characteristics that make ¹⁰Be a useful isotopic tracer in loess, include: (1) dominant atmospheric production directly linked to the intensity of the Earth's magnetic field; (2) climate-dependent deposition; and (3) subsequent immobility, so that as ¹⁰Be accumulates in a loess profile its stratigraphic integrity is preserved. This fact, combined with very high deposition rates in loess on the Chinese Loess Plateau, makes ¹⁰Be an especially valuable continental archive of paleoclimate and paleomagnetism, complementing marine and ice-core records. Here we provide in particular the most recent progress of ¹⁰Be tracer studies in Chinese loess, including the determination of the correct age of the Brunhes-Matuyama polarity reversal at 780 ± 3 ka B.P., in accord with marine and ice records, and quantitative reconstruction of 130-ka paleoprecipitation using ¹⁰Be from Chinese loess profiles.