Characteristics of clay minerals in asian dust and their environmental significance--颗粒学报PARTICUOLOGY

Shen, Z., Li, X., Cao, J., Caquineau, S., Wang, Y., & Zhang, X. (2005). Characteristics of clay minerals in asian dust and their environmental significance. China Particuology, 3(5), 260-264. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1672-2515(07)60198-5

Characteristics of clay minerals in asian dust and their environmental significance

Zhenxing Shen^{a b *}, Xuxiang Li ^a, Junji Cao ^b, Sandrine Caquineau ^c, Yaqiang Wang ^d, Xiaoye Zhang ^d

a Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, P. R. China
b Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an 710075, P. R. China
c Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, 32, av. H. Varagnat, 93143 Bondy cedex, France
d Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, Beijing 100081, P. R. China

10.1016/S1672-2515(07)60198-5

Volume 3, Issue 5, October 2005, Pages 260-264

Received 2 August 2005, Accepted 30 August 2005, Available online 14 December 2007.

E-mail: zxshen@mail.xjtu.edu.cn

Highlights

Abstract

The objectives of this research were to characterise the clay minerals composition of soil-derived dust in Northern China and to set up a mineralogical signature to trace their origin. Mineral composition of aerosol particles was investigated at Aksu, Dunhuang, Yulin, Tongliao and Changwu during an intensive field campaign period of ACE-Asia. The results show that the kaolinite (K) to chlorite (C) ratio is sensitive to the regional origin of Asian dust. Western source areas (represented by Aksu) displayed the lowest K/C ratio of 0.3 (average), while it was found to increase up to 0.70 (average) upon moving towards northern source areas (represented by Yulin). By studying transported dust in a deposition area representative of the Chinese Loess Plateau, the usefulness of the K/C ratio, when associated with back air-mass trajectories, was found to lie in revealing the origin of the dust. Comparison of the mineralogical data between Asian dust and Sahara dust, shows that the K/C ratio is also an effective signature to identify the source areas on a hemisphere scale.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

soil dust; clay ratios; source identification

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