Identifying the sources of sediments is of great significance in reconstructing Holocene paleoclimate evolution in the Beibu Gulf and in understanding the characteristics of regional responses to changes in global climate. The Holocene paleoclimatic evolutionary history of the Beibu Gulf was investigated by chronological, geochemical, and mineralogical means using the sediments of Core KZK01 from the eastern part of the Beibu Gulf. The rare earth element (REE) distribution curves, (Gd/Yb)_N and (La/Yb)_N discriminant diagram, and (Gd/Lu)_N and ∑LREE/∑HREE discriminant diagram indicated that the detrital materials in the eastern part of the Beibu Gulf primarily originated from Hainan Island and its proximal sources, with considerable contributions from Taiwan and Pearl River materials. Source analysis of clay minerals showed that Luzon Island was the main source of smectite, followed by Hainan Island. Rivers in Taiwan were the main sources of illite in the study area, followed by the Red River. The Red River was the main contributor of chlorite, followed by the Pearl River. Kaolinite mainly originated from Hainan Island and Guangxi. Coastal currents, surface currents, and warm currents were the main drivers of material transport. Paleoclimatic variations since the Holocene in the Beibu Gulf were divided into three stages: 12–9 cal kyr BP, 9–1.3 cal kyr BP, and 1.3 cal kyr BP to the present. During different stages of climatic evolution, drought was often accompanied by cold and humidity coexisted with warmth, and cold-dry-warm-humid alternation is characterized by significant phases. The illite crystallinity clearly recorded the extreme cold events, such as Bond Events (except Bond6) and the Younger Dryas, and the change trend was essentially consistent with the regional climate record, reflecting the control of global climate change on the process of land–sea interaction in the tropical region. Furthermore, it highlights the great potential of illite crystallinity as a proxy indicator for reconstructing the surface chemical weathering processes of the region.

Marine sediments in coastal zones serve as valuable archives for understanding the history of silicate chemical weathering and summer monsoon rainfall in source areas, providing insights into terrigenous climate and environmental evolution. In this study, we investigated the grain size, clay minerals, and geochemistry of sediments retrieved from core KZK01 in the coastal zone of the northwest South China Sea during the past 13 thousand years before present (kyr BP). Our findings demonstrated that the illite crystallinity index served as a reliable proxy for assessing the intensity of chemical weathering in the source area. Moreover, it distinctly recorded significant climatic events such as the Younger Dryas and Bond events during the Holocene. The dominant driver of the regional East Asian summer monsoon was identified as summer solar radiation in the Northern Hemisphere at low latitudes. Cold climate events exhibited global consistency, potentially influenced by the presence of ice sheets at high latitudes. Lastly, our records revealed a distinct transition at 9.0 kyr, highlighting significant impacts of the Qiongzhou Strait and sea level rise on regional climate dynamics.

This paper evaluates the carbon dioxide sequestration potential in the saline aquifers of the South Qiongdongnan–Yinggehai Basin. By using a hierarchical evaluation method, the assessment is divided into five stages: the basin level, the zone level, the target level, the site level, and the injection level. The study primarily focuses on evaluating the sequestration potential of and identifying favorable zones of saline aquifers at the basin and zone levels. The optimized volumetric method is adopted, based on the integration of multi-source data such as regional geological maps, seismic data, core porosity, and permeability. The results show that the estimated potential of the Yinggehai Basin is 60.6 billion tons at the basin level and 54.6 billion tons at the zone level. Additionally, the estimated potential of the South Qiongdongnan Basin is 261.5 billion tons at the basin level and 234.8 billion tons at the zone level. The suitability evaluation indicates that the Yinggehai Basin is moderately suitable overall, the northern depression of the South Qiongdongnan Basin is suitable, the central uplift is moderately suitable, and the central depression is not suitable. This study provides a scientific foundation for carbon dioxide sequestration in marine basins and introduces novel ideas and methods for future similar research. This is highly significant for subsequent engineering applications and decision-making processes.