Natural dust and acid rain

Abstract

Atmospheric dust originates from three sources, terrestrial airborn matter, volcanic, and cosmic. Terrestrial natural dust makes up the main bulk reflecting the soil composition to 150 miles away. Soil erosion from flood plains, plowed fields and construction sites are the main source. Quartz, feldspar, the carbonates calcite and dolomite, and clay minerals are the components in decreasing order of frequency. Natural dust in the atmosphere interacts with rainwater converting the carbonates to benign gypsum (CaSO₄·2 H₂O). Naturally leached soils produce less calcite than unweathered sediments on flood plains and construction sites, and in granitic and crystalline rocks less than in limestone areas. Heavy industrialization associated with high emission of CO₂ and SO₂ on the one hand, and excess production of dust on the other appear to counteract man's interference with natural ecosystems in opposite direction.

Parent Publication

• Proceedings of the first international symposium on acid precipitation and the forest ecosystem

Citation

Winkler, Erhard M. 1976. Natural dust and acid rain. In: Dochinger, L. S.; Seliga, T. A., eds. Proceedings of the first international symposium on acid precipitation and the forest ecosystem; Gen. Tech. Rep. NE-23. Upper Darby, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northeastern Forest Experiment Station. 209-217