Rain dust
Rain dust or snow dust, traditionally known as muddy, red, coloured or blood rain, is a rain or any other form of precipitation which contains enough desert dust for the dust to be visible without using a microscope. Rain dust is common in the Western Mediterranean. Dust supply comes from the atmospheric depressions going through the northern part of North Africa.
Rain dust is the most common type of blood rain. Mud rains are relatively frequent and have been increasing in recent years in the Mediterranean Basin.[1] Red rain is however not always a rain dust (see the example of Red rain in Kerala).
Source
The main sources of desert dust reach the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands in the form of dust transported by wind or rain from the Western Sahara, Atlas Mountains in Morocco and Central Algeria.[2]
Dust composition
The rain dust is very alkaline.[2] Some of the large particles contain mixtures of chemicals such as sulfate and sea salt (chiefly with sodium, chlorine and magnesium). Major minerals in order of decreasing abundance are: illite, quartz, smectite, palygorskite, kaolinite, calcite, dolomite and feldspars.[2] In Majorca a study finds that the size, by volume, 89% of the particles from rain dust fraction corresponded to silt (between 0.002 mm and 0.063 mm) and that there was virtually no clay sized particles (less than 0.29%).[3]
Importance
- The particulates that rain dust carries are important for the formation of long-term soil, counteracting, in large part the effects of soil erosion. The amount of solids in rain dust have been estimated at 5.3 grams per m2 (in a study made in Montseny, Catalonia) in this location the dust provides 34% of the calcium needed by the holm oak. The amount of the deposition of dust particles is highly variable depending on the year.
- Saharan dust significantly increases the pH of rain water. This may counteract the effects of acid rain.
- Radioactivity from the Chernobyl Disaster was carried by rain dust to Greece in 2000.[4]
References
- ↑ Sala, José Quereda; Cantos, Jorge Olcina; Chiva, Enrique Montón (1996). "Red dust rain within the Spanish Mediterranean area". Climatic Change 32 (2): 215. doi:10.1007/BF00143711.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Avila, Anna; Queralt-Mitjans, Ignasi; Alarcón, Marta (1997). "Mineralogical composition of African dust delivered by red rains over northeastern Spain". Journal of Geophysical Research 102: 21977. Bibcode:1997JGR...10221977A. doi:10.1029/97JD00485.
- ↑ Fornós, Joan J., Crespí, Damià; Fiol, Lluís (1997). "Aspectes mineralogics i texturals de la pols procedent de les pluges de 1ang a les IIles Balears: la seva importancia en alguns processos geologics recents". Boll. Soc. Hist. Nat. Balears 40: 114–122.
- ↑ Papastefanou, C; Manolopoulou, M; Stoulos, S; Ioannidou, A; Gerasopoulos, E (2001). "Coloured rain dust from Sahara Desert is still radioactive". Journal of Environmental Radioactivity 55 (1): 109–112. doi:10.1016/S0265-931X(00)00182-X. PMID 11381550.