Subaquatic Dust Deposits - Mineral Dust: A Key Player in the Earth System - page 449

17.6 Conclusion

Subaqueous sediments form a great archive of mineral dust, and there are several
well-established proxies to characterise and quantify dust back in time. In order to
reconstruct the palaeo-environmental conditions that led to the deposition of these
dust particles, these proxies have to be interpreted. There are many dust particle size-
related proxies, based on the idea that particle-size distribution and wind carrying
capacity are tightly coupled. However, care has to be taken with this approach as
not only the horizontal but also the vertical distance of the transport path determines
the particle-size distribution of the wind-blown deposits. There are still many open
questions related to the particle size and chemical composition of mineral dust and
its role in global climate.

References

Abouchami W, Zabel M (2003) Climate forcing of the Pb isotope record of terrigenous input into
the Equatorial Atlantic. Earth Planet Sci Lett 213:221-234
Alexandre A, Meunier JD, Lezine AM, Vincens A, Schwartz D (1997) Phytoliths: indicators of
grassland dynamics during the late Holocene in intertropical Africa. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclima-
tol Palaeoecol 136:213-229
Alleman LY, Church TM, Véron AJ, Kim G, Hamelin B, Flegal AR (2001) Isotopic evidence of
contaminant lead in the South Atlantic troposphere and surface waters. Deep-Sea Res II Top
Stud Oceanogr 48:2811-2827
Betzer PR, Carder KL, Duce RA, Merrill JT, Tindale NW, Uematsu M et al (1988) Long-range
transport of giant mineral aerosol particles. Nature 336:568
Bishop JKB, Davis RE, Sherman JT (2002) Robotic observations of dust storm enhancement of
carbon biomass in the North Pacific. Science 298:817-821
Blakemore R (1975) Magnetotactic bacteria. Science 190:377-379
Bloemendal J, Lamb B, King J (1988) Paleoenvironmental implications of rock-magnetic proper-
ties of late quaternary sediment cores from the eastern equatorial Atlantic. Paleoceanography
3:61-87
Bloemsma MR, Zabel M, Stuut JBW, Tjallingii R, Collins JA, Weltje GJ (2012) Modelling the joint
variability of grain size and chemical composition in sediments. Sediment Geol 280:135-148
Bowler JM (1976) Aridity in Australia: Age, origins and expression in aeolian landforms and
sediments. Earth Sci Rev 12:279-310
Chase BM, Quick LJ, Meadows ME, Scott L, Thomas DSG, Reimer PJ (2011) Late glacial inter-
hemispheric climate dynamics revealed in South African hyrax middens. Geology 39:19-22
Clemens SC, Prell WL (1990) Late Pleistocene variability of Arabian Sea summer monsoon winds
and continental aridity: Eolian records from the lithogenic component of deep-sea sediments.
Paleoceanography 5:109-145
Coetzee JA (1976) A report on a pollen analytical investigation of recent river mouth sediments
on the South West African coast. In: Sarnthein M, Seibold E, Rognon P (eds) Palaecology of
Africa, vol 9. A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam, pp 131-135
Coudé-Gaussen G (1989) Local, proximal and distal Saharan dusts: characterization and contribu-
tion to the sedimentation. In: Leinen M, Sarnthein M (eds) Palaeoclimatology and palaeometeo-
rology: modern and past patterns of global atmospheric transport. Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht
282:339-58