Figure 4: Sediment provenance and dispersal pattern of the Yellow River.
From: Loess Plateau storage of Northeastern Tibetan Plateau-derived Yellow River sediment
The three depositional areas along the Yellow River are shown by dashed rectangles. UYR, upper Yellow River; MYR, middle Yellow River; LYR, lower Yellow River; MR, main river; BR, branch river; EMU, East Mu Us; WMU, West Mu Us. Xiaolangdi is indicated by the yellow star near site 31 in Fig. 1. Taohuayu corresponds to the boundary between the middle and the lower reaches of the Yellow River in Fig. 1. Kou corresponds to site 22 in Fig. 1. River transport and winter monsoon transport are represented by straight and curved lines, respectively. Fine (dashed curved line) and coarse (solid curved line) particles are transported to the Loess Plateau and the western Mu Us desert, respectively, by the East Asian winter monsoon. Less than 1/4 of the lower reach sediment is transported to the marine basin1,30. The dashed straight line with arrow indicates the relative unimportance of the Loess Plateau in contributing sediment to the middle reach of the Yellow River. The provenance shift in the lower portion of the Yellow River suggests that a new sediment source is introduced and we attribute this source to erosion of the Qinling Mountains by branch rivers.
