Ilan Koren et al 2006 Environ. Res. Lett. 1 014005 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/1/1/014005
Ilan Koren1, Yoram J Kaufman2, Richard Washington3, Martin C Todd4, Yinon Rudich1, J Vanderlei Martins2,5,6 and Daniel Rosenfeld7
Show affiliationsAbout 40 million tons of dust are transported annually from the Sahara to the Amazon basin. Saharan dust has been proposed to be the main mineral source that fertilizes the Amazon basin, generating a dependence of the health and productivity of the rain forest on dust supply from the Sahara. Here we show that about half of the annual dust supply to the Amazon basin is emitted from a single source: the Bodélé depression located northeast of Lake Chad, approximately 0.5% of the size of the Amazon or 0.2% of the Sahara. Placed in a narrow path between two mountain chains that direct and accelerate the surface winds over the depression, the Bodélé emits dust on 40% of the winter days, averaging more than 0.7 million tons of dust per day.
92.60.Mt Particles and aerosols
92.60.Gn Winds and their effects
Issue 1 (October–December 2006)
Received 27 July 2006, accepted for publication 4 October 2006
Published 30 October 2006
A Perspective for this article has been published in 2006 Environ. Res. Lett. 1 011001
Ilan Koren et al 2006 Environ. Res. Lett. 1 014005
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