Impacts of Holocene Sea Level Rise and the Opening of the Qiongzhou Strait on the Provenance of Sediments in the Beibu Gulf, South China Sea

The opening of the Qiongzhou Strait during the Holocene was a significant geological event in the Beibu Gulf, profoundly influencing sediment provenance and ocean circulation systems. Due to the scarcity of geological records documenting this event, the understanding of regional Holocene sedimentary evolution has been constrained. To investigate the impact of this event on sediment provenance and ocean currents in the Beibu Gulf, geochemical analyses were conducted on sediment core SO-31 retrieved from the South China Sea. The sediments in core SO-31 were stratigraphically divided into three units based on vertical geochemical profiles, reflecting changes in sea level and shifts in sediment provenance within the study area. The Th/Cr vs. Th/Sc scatter plot for core SO-31 indicate that sedimentary materials primarily originated from the Red River during 11,400–7700 a BP, and a significant change in provenance occurred in the study region around 7700 a BP, characterized by increased contributions from the Qiongzhou Strait and decreased contributions from the Red River. This suggests that the opening of the Qiongzhou Strait significantly influenced the sediment supply to the central Beibu Gulf around 7700 a BP. These findings provide critical geochemical evidence for studying the Qiongzhou Strait opening event and enhance our understanding of Holocene sedimentary evolution and “source–sink” transitions in the Beibu Gulf.