Emissions of alkaline elements calcium, magnesium, potassium, and sodium from open sources in the contiguous United States
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Boulder, CO (United States)
- Illinois State Water Survey, Champaign, IL (United States)
- Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins (United States)
- Univ. of Colorado, Boulder (United States)
Models of dust emissions by wind erosion (including winds associated with regional activity as well as dust devils) and vehicular disturbances of unpaved roads were developed, calibrated, and used to estimate alkaline dust emissions from elemental soil and road composition data. Emissions from tillage of soils were estimated form the work of previous researchers. The area of maximum dust production by all of those sources is the area of the old Dust Bowl' of the 1930s (the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma, eastern New Mexico and Colorado, and western Kansas). The areas of maximum alkaline dust production are the arid southwest, the Dust Bowl,' and the midwestern-mideastern states from Iowa to Pennsylvania. Our calculations show that calcium is the dominant alkaline element produced by open sources' (sources too great in extent to be controlled by enclosure or ducting). Although the largest dust mass source is wind erosion (by winds associated with regional activity and convective activity), the largest producer of the alkaline component is road dust because the abundance of alkaline materials in road coverings (which include crushed limestone) is significantly higher than for soils. Comparing the above estimated sources of alkaline material with inventories of SO[sub 2] and NO[sub x] emissions by previous investigators gives the rough approximation that alkaline emission rates are of the order of the SO[sub 2] + NO[sub x] emissions in the western United States and that they are much smaller than SO[sub 2] + NO[sub x] in the eastern United States. This approximation is substantiated by data on Ca/(SO[sub 4] + NO[sub 3]) for wet deposition for National Atmospheric Deposition Program sites. 53 refs., 9 figs., 2 tabs.
- OSTI ID:
- 6665832
- Journal Information:
- Global Biogeochemical Cycles; (United States), Vol. 6:4; ISSN 0886-6236
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
ALKALINE EARTH METAL COMPOUNDS
ECOLOGICAL CONCENTRATION
MONITORING
ALKALINE EARTH METALS
ROADS
EROSION
SOILS
ACID RAIN
CALCIUM
COLORADO
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
IOWA
KANSAS
LIMESTONE
MAGNESIUM
NEW MEXICO
NITROGEN OXIDES
OKLAHOMA
PENNSYLVANIA
POTASSIUM
SODIUM
SULFUR DIOXIDE
TEXAS
USA
WIND
ALKALI METALS
ATMOSPHERIC PRECIPITATIONS
CARBONATE ROCKS
CHALCOGENIDES
DATA
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
ELEMENTS
INFORMATION
METALS
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
NORTH AMERICA
NUMERICAL DATA
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
RAIN
ROCKS
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
SULFUR OXIDES
540120* - Environment
Atmospheric- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport- (1990-)
540220 - Environment
Terrestrial- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport- (1990-)