Late Quaternary sedimentation and neotectonics in Liaodong Bay, northern Bohai Sea

The Bohai Sea is a typical shelf sea, with obvious sediment differences in different regions. Although Liaodong Bay is the largest bay in the Bohai Sea, there lacks boreholes with precise dating. In this paper, the core sediments taken from YKC-2 borehole in the northeastern of Liaodong Bay are dated with AMS14C and OSL, in addition to grain size analysis, foraminifera and pollen identification, lithological characteristics and other testing results. Correlation is made with the global sea level change curve, and upon the basis the evolution of paleoenvironment in the northeast of Liaodong Bay is reconstructed. It is speculated that the age of the bottom of borehole YKC-2 is 150 kyr B.P., and two transgressions have been recorded, similar to the situation in JXC-1, a borehole 46.7 km to the west. It can be found that the sedimentation rate of YKC-2 borehole is obviously higher than that of JXC-1. The authors’ research found that it is mainly controlled by two factors: the provenance difference and the differential movement of basin controlling faults. In the west, sediments are mainly transported by the Bohai Sea current, with insufficient sediment supply, and the basin-controlling faults are rather stable and very weak in activity. In the east, sediments are transported mainly by the surrounding rivers with sufficient sediment supply; and the changes in accommodation space are under the control of the Tan-Lu fault zone. Affected by the strong extensional dynamic environment of the Bohai Bay Basin, the accommodation space, where the borehole YKC-2 is located, continuously increased for deposition of near-source river sediments. This article is an endeavor to study the evolution of the Late Quaternary sedimentary environment and the influence of tectonic activity on Quaternary sedimentation in the Bohai Sea.