2007/01/01 by Changling He, Henrik Breuning‐Madsen, Theodore W. Awadzi · 1 citation
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #Aeolian processes and effects #Geology and Paleoclimatology Research #Soil erosion and sediment transport #Plagioclase #Mineral dust #Geology #Topsoil #Aeolian processes #Quartz #Clay minerals #Atmospheric dust #Weathering #Environmental science #Mineralogy #Physical geography #Geochemistry #Soil water #Geomorphology #Soil science #Geography #Aerosol #Paleontology
paper · doi:10.1080/00167223.2007.10801371
openalex publication_date 2007/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
In Ghana, a dust-laden Harmattan wind blows from the Sahara in the period November to March. Some of the dust is trapped in the vegetation, in lakes and other inland waters, and a little on the bare land, whereas the rest of the dust is blown further away to the Ivory Coast or out into the Atlantic Ocean. In this project, we studied samples of dust and topsoils in various agroecological zones, from the north to the south of Ghana, focussing mainly on the mineralogy of these materials. Some data about grain sizes and morphology of the samples are also presented. Feldspars, together with quartz, are the common minerals found in Harmattan dust, but the relative contents of K-feldspars and plagioclase vary markedly in the different zones. This variation is consistent with changes in the relative content of the feldspars in the topsoil, indicating a substantial local contribution to the Harmattan dust. This conclusion is supported by the clay mineralogy of the samples. However, the pH of the dust is significantly higher than that of the local soils, indicating that a substantial amount of the dust comes from the Sahara.