Ice Core Archives of Mineral Dust - Mineral Dust: A Key Player in the Earth System - page 472

18.6 Conclusion

The insoluble dust particles deposited in polar snow allow the investigation
of changes in atmospheric and terrestrial conditions over the late Pleistocene.
Greenland ice cores have shown great fluctuations in the atmospheric dust content
of the Northern Hemisphere, linked closely to the volume of terrestrial ice and
consequently the strength of the hydrological cycle. Dust transported to the high
Northern latitudes is unequivocally sourced from central Asian deserts including
the Gobi and Taklamakan. From Antarctic ice cores, it is clear that southern South
America is the dominant source of dust in the Southern Hemisphere, and has
been so for at least the last eight glacial-interglacial climate cycles. The very low
concentrations of dust present in Antarctic Holocene snow and ice represent an
ongoing analytical challenge, with suggestions of additional dust sources but few
certainties regarding their locations. Australia, New Zealand and exposed rock areas
in Antarctica are currently the most likely candidates for the currently unaccounted
sources of dust in Antarctica. The size distributions of dust found in polar ice
is reasonably well characterized but further research is required to explain the
remarkable homogeneity of dust sizes and the evaluate the extent to which dust
size distributions can be used to reconstruct atmospheric transport patterns and/or
deflation source variability.

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