Low-strength sediment layers within continental slope strata precondition submarine sediment for failure, potentially leading to destructive tsunamis. Using geophysical and Ocean Drilling Program well data, here we show that the glide planes of widespread submarine failures in the northern South China Sea, dated to the glacial stages following the Mid-Pleistocene Transition, have higher opal content, particle size, and porosity, which reduce the undrained shear strength. Cyclic weak-layer deposition, modulated at Milankovitch time scale, was controlled by increased ocean primary productivity and sedimentation rates linked to high-amplitude sea-level fluctuations and intensified winter monsoons. This study represents an important step forward for understanding how climate influences the formation of weak layers and the stability of continental slope globally.

The High Mountain Asia (HMA) region, ranging from the Hindu Kush and Tien Shan in the west to the Himalaya in the south with an altitude between 2000 and 8844 m, holds the largest reservoir of glaciers and snow outside Earth Polar Regions. In the last decades, numerous glaciers and lake areas there have undergone tremendous changes with water redistribution. In order to increase understanding of the pattern of distribution of water resources, and their dynamic changes at the basin scale, a watershed classification based on the water replenishment patterns dataset was constructed. The input dataset are from the Randolph Glacier Inventory V.6.0 and the vector data of rivers and streams. Four datasets were thus obtained: Glacier-fed and Runoff-fed Drainage Area (GRDA), Glacier-fed and Runoff-free Drainage Area (GDA), Glacier-free and Runoff-fed Drainage Area (RDA), and the Glacier-free and Runoff-free Drainage Area (NGRDA), and the numbers of these four types of basins are 87, 107, 32, and 448 separately. The statistical results show GRDA has the largest surface area, accounting for 82.2% of the total basin area in HMA, mainly in the region of the basin with outflow rivers or streams. Dominated by small basins, the GDA area accounts for the smallest area, only 3.86% and the RDA accounts for 5.62%. For NGRDA, most are with small areas, accounting for 8.32%, and mainly distributes in the closed basin of the Qiangtang Plateau. This dataset provides a fundamental classified data source for research on water resources, climate, ecology, and environment in HMA. The published data are available at https://data.4tu.nl/download/uuid:d07d748f-d10b-4308-9626-199ef05cc9af/ and http://www.dx.doi.org/10.11922/sciencedb.923.