Marine mud sediment contains huge quantities of information concerning with catchment change,climate change and environment evolution.Therefore,analyzing the fine grain sized fraction of sediment is a crucial method to extract environment evolution information.The surficial sediments collected from north-central of the North Yellow Sea(NYS)were sieved and the fine fraction(<63mum)were tested for rare earth elements(REE).The test results indicate that,as bounded by Changshan Islands,the discrepancies of REE concentration and distribution patterns between the east and west sediments of the mud deposition of the eastern Liaodong Peninsula (MDELP)was observed.The sediments in east of Changshan Islands,dominated by Yalu River,are defective in Eu and rich in REE,especially in light rare earth elements(LREE).However,the REE contents are low in the west side of Changshan Island and their distribution patterns are flat.Meanwhile,attributing to the wildly use of contrast agent(Gd-DTPA)in the Magnetic Resonance Imaging(MRI),the Gd in the sediment of the study area is obviously enriched.Furthermore,new recognition concerning with the sediment transport and origin is acquired: previous study believed the sediment source of MDELP is mainly derived from the Yalu River.However,our research reveals that,due to the transport of shelf circulation,there exists sediment exchange between the MDELP and the mud deposition of the west NYS:the sediment source in east of MDELP is controlled by the Yalu River, and that in the west of MDELP is mainly dominated by the Yellow River;in addition,Yalu River-derived sediment is supplied to the mud deposition of the west NYS.