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Geochemical characterisation of east Australian dusts: A tool for provenance of aeolian sediments from geological archives
Abstract

Geochemical characterisation of east Australian dusts: A tool for provenance of aeolian sediments from geological archives

H A McGowan, B S Kamber and Samuel K Marx
Joint BGRG/BSRG Conference: Drylands - Linking Landscape Processes To Sedimentary Environments, 2005 (London, United Kingdom, 02-Feb-2005–04-Feb-2005)
2005
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Abstract

Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience dust transport deposition New Zealand Australia
On 7 February 2000 an atypical orange discolouration of snowfields in the central Southern Alps, New Zealand occurred following the passage of a cold front. Analysis of snow samples identified fine orangey-brown dust mixed with much coarser grey dust. Air parcel forward trajectories from dust sources in southern and central Australia, where dust storms were reported on 4 February 2000, were computed to identify the deposits source. Geochemical analyses of the dust deposit using 26 trace elements, unaffected by regional air pollution and gravitational sorting, indicate that 20% of the dust was sourced from western New South Wales, with 45% from the eastern Eyre Peninsula of South Australia and the remaining 35% was local New Zealand dust. This provenancing approach provides a spatial resolution of long travelled dust sourcing not previously achieved.

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