Sedimentary records of Typhoon Haiyan in the South China Sea

South China Sea (SCS), which is located at the boundary of the Eurasian, Philippine Sea, and Indian plates, is the largest marginal sea of the northwest Pacific and also on the North Western Pacific corridor of typhoons. The unique tectonic setting and climatic conditions make it has to face the severe natural hazards, like submarine landslides, and high sediment discharges which induced by typhoon. On November 8, 2013, the Typhoon Haiyan, which was one of the largest tropical cyclones ever recorded in western Pacific, devastated Philippines and caused catastrophic destruction. Before the Typhoon Haiyan reached Hainan Province, China and Quangninh Province, Vietnam, it emerged over the SCS. How was the large amount of terrestrial materials distributed and recorded in deep sea sediments by such intense typhoon? Is it possible for us to reconstruct the history of extreme tropical cyclones by using deep sea cores? In this study, twelve gravity cores were collected in the Central SCS Basin and around Taiping Island (Itu Aba Island) from 2014 to 2015 and a series of analysis including Multi-Sensor Core Logger, XRF Core Scanner, core surface and X-radiograph images, grain size, and excess 210Pb chronology were conducted for modern extreme event records in cores and attempt to evaluate the possibility of reconstructed extreme typhoon records in cores from the SCS. On core surface images, an obvious brownish oxidized layer exist in core top with higher 210Pb activities beneath the layer. According to the sampling time, we conjecture the oxidized layer might formed by Typhoon Haiyan in 2013. In addition, the Itrax data shows high manganese content only exist in this layer which might related to the modern industrial pollution delivered by typhoon induced flooding from Philippines. The Power Barge 103 of Napocor in Estancia IIoilo was dislodged from its mount by Typhoon Haiyan and the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination Team reported 600,000 liters of bunker fuel had spilled. To clarify the relationship between the oil spill and high manganese records in sediments, some further analysis is needed. Our analysis result shows, in the Central SCS Basin, over 80 cm turbidite layer was deposited by Typhoon Haiyan and it will take more than 4000 years to deposit on seafloor without the impact of extreme events.