Legacy heavy metals from past industrial activity combine with traffic paint; asphalt; and bits of tires, brakes, and car parts to create toxic dust on our roadways.
dust
Posted inNews
Dusting Off the Arid Antiquity of the Sahara
New research on the geochemistry of Canary Islands paleosols shows that the Sahara has been an arid dust producer for at least 4.8 million years.
Posted inScience Updates
Scientists Share Results of Dust Belt Research
Central Asian Dust Conference; Dushanbe, Tajikistan, 8–12 April 2019
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Curiosity Monitors Rare Global Dust Storm From Mars’s Surface
Since the 1970s, no surface platform had made meteorological measurements of a global dust storm on Mars, but last summer NASA’s Curiosity rover witnessed one of these rare events.
Posted inNews
Far-Flung Dust Storms Deliver Nutrient Boosts to North Pacific
Barren marine deserts bloom seasonally with iron infusions from Asian dust storms.
Posted inNews
The Akkadian Empire—Felled by Dust?
Chemical measurements of a stalagmite from a cave in Iran reveal a large uptick in dust activity in northern Mesopotamia roughly 4,200 years ago, coincident with the decline of the Akkadian Empire.
Posted inScience Updates
Assessing the Many Influences of High-Latitude Dust
First International Conference on High Latitude Cold Climate Dust (HLCCD); Reykjavík, Iceland, 22–25 May 2017
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Where Are the Electrical Currents in the Enceladus Plume?
A plume of water ice that escapes Saturn’s moon Enceladus should be coursing with electrical currents, but data are mixed. Now simulations suggest that a sticky dust cloud may shield signals.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
How Mars Got Its Layered North Polar Cap
Orbital wobbling shaped the dome of ice and dust at the planet's north pole.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Carbon Dioxide Frost May Keep Martian Soil Dusty
Temperature readings acquired from orbit show that Mars's surface gets cold enough at night to allow layers of solid carbon dioxide frost up to several hundred micrometers thick to build up near the equator.