Asian mineral dust has been studied extensively for its role in affecting regional-to global-scale climate and for its deposits, which enable reconstructing Asian atmospheric circulation in the past. However, the timing and origin of the dust deposits remain debated. Numerous loess records have been reported across the Asian continent with ages varying from the Miocene to the Eocene and linked to various mechanisms including global cooling, Tibetan Plateau uplift and retreat of the inland proto-Paratethys Sea. Here, we study the Eocene terrestrial mudrocks of the Xining Basin in central China and use nonparametric end-member analysis of grain-size distributions to identify a loess-like dust component appearing in the record at 40 Ma. This is coeval with the onset of high-latitude orbital cycles and a shift to predominant steppe-desert vegetation as recognized by previous studies in the same record. Furthermore, we derive wind directions from eolian dune deposits which suggest northwesterly winds, similar to the modern-day winter monsoon which is driven by a high pressure system developing over Siberia. We propose that the observed shifts at 40 Ma reflect the onset of the Siberian High interacting with westerly derived moisture at obliquity timescales and promoting dust storms and aridification in central China. The timing suggests that the onset may have been triggered by increased continentality due to the retreating proto-Paratethys Sea.

Recognition of terrestrial dust in geological records is essential for reconstructing paleoenvironments and quantifying dust fluxes in the past. However, in contrast to eolian sands, silt-sized dust is difficult to recognize in pre-Quaternary records due to a lack of macroscopic features indicating eolian transport and mixing with alluvial sediments. Windblown dust deposits are commonly identified by comparing their sedimentological and petrological features with Quaternary examples of dust known as loess. Here, we review the characteristics of terrestrial dust deposits and conclude that most of these features are not exclusively windblown and may be formed by alluvial deposits as well. We therefore synthesize a set of criteria which enable a reliable identification and quantification of dust while acknowledging potential contributions of alluvial components. These methods include quartz-grain surface morphology analysis to distinguish eolian and alluvial transport modes, provenance studies to identify local and extrabasinal sources, grain-size-shape end-member modelling to quantify the various sedimentary contributions to the record, and a basin-scale stratigraphic approach to derive regional patterns and avoid interpretation of local phenomena. We reassess the Eocene to Pliocene records of the Chinese Loess Plateau and conclude that these strata represent both alluvial and eolian sediments deposited in extensive mudflat systems. Quaternary loess, by contrast, is almost exclusively composed of windblown dust. The early Pleistocene shift from mudflat to loess deposits is associated with a significant increase in accumulation rates, likely due to increased dust production upwind, overwhelming and blanketing the local mudflat systems in central China.

The onset of modern central Asian atmospheric circulation is traditionally linked to the interplay of surface uplift of the Mongolian and Tibetan-Himalayan orogens, retreat of the Paratethys sea from central Asia and Cenozoic global cooling. Although the role of these players has not yet been unravelled, the vast dust deposits of central China support the presence of arid conditions and modern atmospheric pathways for the last 25 million years (Myr). Here, we present provenance data from older (42-33 Myr) dust deposits, at a time when the Tibetan Plateau was less developed, the Paratethys sea still present in central Asia and atmospheric pCO₂ much higher. Our results show that dust sources and near-surface atmospheric circulation have changed little since at least 42 Myr. Our findings indicate that the locus of central Asian high pressures and concurrent aridity is a resilient feature only modulated by mountain building, global cooling and sea retreat.