Climate of the Past Discussions www.clim-past-discuss.net 1814-9340 1814-9359 6 2 2010 10.5194/cpd-6-627-2010 http://www.clim-past-discuss.net/6/627/2010/ http://www.clim-past-discuss.net/6/627/2010/cpd-6-627-2010.html http://www.clim-past-discuss.net/6/627/2010/cpd-6-627-2010.pdf 627 657 2010-04-20 Asian aridification linked to the first step of the Eocene-Oligocene climate Transition (EOT) in obliquity-dominated terrestrial records (Xining Basin, China) G. Q. Xiao H. A. Abels abels@geo.uu.nl Q. Z. Yao G. Dupont-Nivet F. J. Hilgen State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 17, Xian, 710075, China Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology of Ministry of Education, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, China Stratigraphy/Paleontology, Dept. of Earth Sciences, Utrecht Univ., Utrecht, The Netherlands Paleomagnetic Laboratory "Fort Hoofddijk", Dept. of Earth Sciences, Utrecht Univ., Utrecht, The Netherlands Asian terrestrial records of the Eocene-Oligocene Transition (EOT) are rare and, when available, often poorly constrained in time, even though they are crucial in understanding the atmospheric impact of this major step in Cenozoic climate deterioration. Here, we present a detailed cyclostratigraphic study of the continuous continental EOT succession deposited between ~35 to 33 Ma in the Xining Basin at the northeastern edge of Tibetan Plateau. Lithology supplemented with high-resolution magnetic susceptibility (MS), median grain size (MGS) and color reflectance (<i>a*</i>) records reveal a prominent ~3.4 m thick basic cyclicity of alternating playa gypsum and dry mudflat red mudstones of latest Eocene age. The magnetostratigraphic age model indicates that this cyclicity was most likely forced by the 41-kyr obliquity cycle driving oscillations of drier and wetter conditions in Asian interior climate from at least 1 million year before the EOT. In addition, our results suggest a duration of ~0.9 Myr for magnetochron C13r that is in accordance with radiometric dates from continental successions in Wyoming, USA, albeit somewhat shorter than in current time scales. Detailed comparison of the EOT interval in the Tashan section with marine records suggest that the most pronounced lithofacies change in the Xining Basin corresponds to the first of two widely recognized steps in oxygen isotopes across the EOT. 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