First evidence that dust and sand deposits in China are controlled by rivers

Space Daily via SPX: New research published in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews has found the first evidence that large rivers control desert sands and dust in Northern China.

Northern China holds some of the world's most significant wind-blown dust deposits, known as loess. The origin of this loess-forming dust and its relationship to sand has previously been the subject of considerable debate.

The team of researchers led by Royal Holloway University, analysed individual grains of fine wind-blown dust deposited in the Chinese Loess Plateau that has formed thick deposits over the past 2.5 million years.

As part of this, they also analysed the Mu Us desert in Inner Mongolia and the Yellow River, one of the world's longest rivers, to identify links between the dust deposits and nearby deserts and rivers.

The results showed that the Yellow River transports large quantities of sediment from northern Tibet to the Mu Us desert and further suggests that the river contributes a significant volume of material to the Loess Plateau....

The Gobi Desert, Inner Mongolia, shot by Svdmolen, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license