Winds kick up large amounts of dust from the desert that has formed as the world’s fourth largest lake has disappeared, spreading it around the region and raising concerns about public health.
dust
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Bacteria Travel Thousands of Kilometers on Airborne Dust
As winds pick up dirt and sand, they also pick up any microbes adhering to those particles, potentially introducing them to new locations.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Asian Dust Flux into Philippine Sea Increased During Miocene
A new deep sea dust record from the Philippine Sea, when added to evidence from the NW Pacific, suggests how dust may record a change in dustiness or the position of wind transport.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
中新世输入菲律宾海的亚洲风尘增加
一项来自菲律宾海的新的深海风尘记录，结合西北太平洋已有记录的对比，展示了海洋风尘沉积如何记录大气粉尘通量或风力传输路径的变化。
Posted inNews
Mars’s Dust Cycle Controls Its Polar Vortex and Snowfall
On Earth, the water cycle is a dominant climate force. On Mars, it’s the dust.
Posted inFeatures
Africa’s Earth, Wind, and Fire Keep the Amazon Green
Jet streams sprinkle North African dust over the Amazon, providing the rain forest with much needed nutrients. Changing wind patterns and increasing smoke may shift the system.
Posted inNews
Iodine-Laden Desert Dust Is Eating at Ozone Pollution
In a happy accident, scientists found a potential solution to an atmospheric chemistry mystery. Their findings could be a missing piece in the iodine cycle and in atmospheric models.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Rethinking How Valley Fever Spreads
Scientists have long assumed that dust storms lead to infections with the desert soil fungus Coccidioides, but new evidence suggests otherwise.
Posted inScience Updates
Planetary Dunes Tell of Otherworldly Winds
On Earth and throughout our solar system, ripples and dunes in sand and dust offer insights into how winds blow, liquid currents flow, and solid particles fly and bounce over the terrain.
Posted inNews
Settlement of Rapa Nui May Have Been Doomed by a Dearth of Dust
Rapa Nui and Hawai‘i offer a tale of two island settlements: Hawai‘i was close enough to Asia for continental dust to help replenish soil nutrients depleted by agriculture. Rapa Nui wasn’t.