Contribution of Saharan dust to the Central Mediterranean basin

Abstract

The Mediterranean Basin receives sedimentary contributions from several sources with different geological characteristics. The most important natural source of dust is the Saharan desert. Data from aerosol dust samples collected in a remote site in the Central Mediterranean Basin were used to investigate incursions of Saharan dust during a seven-month period (October through April). This work is an attempt to trace source areas and transport of dust plumes by means of grain-size, mineralogical, and chemical analyses. Two sets of aerosol samples typical of "desert-dominated" and "anthropogenic- dominated" air masses were studied. We propose a model for assessing the effects of latitude on the chemistry and mineralogy of the Central Mediterranean aerosol. Calculations and measurements of insoluble fluxes, in particular for Al (80 μg/cm2 yr-1) and Ca (28μg/cm2 yr-1), were performed, and results were compared with fluxes from the literature calculated in other stations in the Mediterranean Basin.