T. Nihlen et al., MONITORING OF SAHARAN DUST FALLOUT ON CRETE AND ITS CONTRIBUTION TO SOIL FORMATION, Tellus. Series B, Chemical and physical meteorology, 47(3), 1995, pp. 365-374
A series of 6 dust traps was established in 1988 distributed over the
island of Crete (Greece). Eolian dust has been collected in the traps
each year and in each season during the 4 years of investigation which
is still going on. The mean deposition rate for the 6 stations and 4
years was calculated as 21.3 g m(-2) yr(-1). Using the highest and low
est values, the deposition can be extrapolated to 6.6-21.4 mm for 1000
years, which is in agreement with other researchers' findings. The tr
apped dust shows a homogeneous grain-size distribution. Its mineralogy
is similar to what characterizes soil samples from Psiloritis on Cret
e and source areas in southern Tunisia. In the fine fraction of the so
il (particles < 10 mu m), the contents of the clay mineral kaolinite a
nd of quartz are high. In addition, the oxygen isotope composition of
the 3 types of substrate is similar but differs from the weathering pr
oducts of the limestone bedrock. Statistics of dust episodes covering
the period c. 1955-1990 from 10 meteorological stations in Greece reve
aled that long-distance transport of dust in combination with winds fr
om a southerly sector is common in the Aegean area during spring.