Dust Deposition in Southern Nevada and California, 1984- 1989: Relations to climate, source area, and lithology

Dust samples taken annually for five years from 55 sites in
southern Nevada and California provide an unparalleled source
of information on modern rates of dust deposition, grain size,
and mineralogical and chemical composition. The relations of
modern dust to climatic factors, type and lithology of dust
source, and regional wind patterns shed new light on the
processes of dust entrainment and deposition.
A project to study modern dust deposition relative to soils in
southern Nevada and California was initiated in 1984 under the
auspices of the Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Project
(Interagency Agreement DE-AI08-78ET44802). The primary purpose
of the dust-deposition project was to provide data on modern
dust composition and influx rates to a computer model relating
soil carbonate to paleoclimate. A secondary purpose was to
provide data on dust influx rates at specific sites in the
southern Great Basin and Mojave Desert where soil
chronosequences were studied in support of tectonic and
stratigraphic investigations for the Yucca Mountain Project.
The initial 46 sampling sites, including one site with five
traps, were established in 1984 and were supplemented by nine
more sites in 1985 to provide dust data to soil studies by
other investigators along the Elsinore Fault and in the
Transverse Ranges of southern California.