Characteristics of clay minerals in sediments of Hemudu area, Zhejiang, China in Holocene and their environmental significance

The Ningshao Plain experienced sea-level fluctuation and climate change in the Holocene and gave birth to a Neolithic Civilization, the Hemudu Culture(about 5000 BC). Using XRD method, this paper studied the clay mineralogy of sediments in core HMD-1301 from Hemudu Site area in Ningshao Plain. Results show that the clay mineral assemblages in all samples are quite consistent. They are dominated by illite(about 57%) and smectite(about 26%), and a small amount of kaolinite(about 6%) and chlorite(about 9%). In addition, illite, chlorite, and kaolinite are originated mainly from eolian loesses. Smectite is resulted mainly from chemical weathering of local volcanic rocks outcropped. Illite crystallinity indicates the climatic characteristics of the source region, and illite chemistry index reflects the climate nature of the sedimentary area. It is our understanding that water medium properties in a sedimentary environment affect clay mineral assemblage and the distribution, based on which were cognized the Holocene transgression-regression events in the Hemudu Site area. These mineral indices are well comparable with geochemical indicators in identifying the transgression-regression events. We believe that these events affected the ancient civilization of the ancient residential communities at the time.