Eolian deposits of the northern margin of the South China (Jianghan Basin): Reconstruction of the Late Cretaceous East Asian landscape in central China

The Late Cretaceous Honghuatao Formation includes a succession of thick clastic sedimentary sequences which are widely exposed in northwestern Jianghan Basin, central China. Here, detailed sedimentological and facies architectural analyses are performed allowing to re-interpret and identify the controversy for sedimentary environment and to investigate the paleoclimatic condition. The Honghuatao stratigraphic sequence includes eolian dunes and dry interdunes deposits with fluvial channel deposits at the bottom and top. The vertical change between fluvial and eolian systems indicates alternating wet and dry climate. At the same time, the provenance analysis combined with the paleocurrents from the W, NW, and NE indicates that Huangling Dome, South Qinling Belt and Dabie Orogen supply the main detrital source for the Honghuatao Formation. The Late Cretaceous first rifting subsidence in the Jianghan Basin provided accommodation space for the preservation of the aeolian accumulation. Moreover, the existence of the mountain belts around the basin, that is, the orographic effect, precluded the winds from transporting humidity to the interior of the Jianghan Basin, generating the desert system. This study shows that the formation of eolian deposits in the Honghuatao Formation and coeval strata in numerous adjacent basins was a sedimentary response to the prevailing desert climate in the mid-to low-latitude areas of the Northern Hemisphere during the Late Cretaceous, which was predominately controlled by the subtropical high-pressure system on a planetary scale. •Late Cretaceous aeolian succession in South China was identified and paleowind patterns were characterized.•Wind-pattern model in East Asia was proposed during the Late Cretaceous.•Late Cretaceous East Asian paleogeography in central China was reconstructed.