Sunday 04 November 2018
Expedition MSM79: chasing Saharan dust
From 9 November until 3 December this year, four NIOZ colleagues have joined expedition MSM79 on board the German research vessel Maria S. Merian, sailing from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Spain) to Mindelo on Sao Vicente (Cape Verde).
Through this…
Tuesday 16 October 2018
PhD defence Laura Korte
From this day on, Laura Korte may call herself a PhD; she successfully defended her thesis “Saharan dust deposition in the equatorial North Atlantic Ocean and its impact on particle export fluxes” at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. A committee of…
Wednesday 08 August 2018
NIOZ@SEA | Saharan dust in the Mediterranean
Research expedition 64PE443 onboard RV Pelagia takes place from 9 to 13 August 2018 and is dedicated to recovering a set of geodetic instruments that have been recording sea-floor movements related to the activity of Mount Etna, as well as to…
Wednesday 04 July 2018
Saharan dust at the source
In their new paper, Michèlle van der Does and colleagues show how the so-called radiogenic isotopes of Sr, Nd, and Hf, as well as a suite of rare-earth elements can be used to demonstrate the Saharan origin of sediments collected while sinking…
Thursday 31 May 2018
Ballasting potential of Saharan dust
In their new paper, Helga van der Jagt (AWI-Bremerhaven, Germany) and colleagues show how Saharan dust particles and marine snow can increase the export of organic matter from the surface ocean towards the sea floor. This process is essential for the…
Monday 12 March 2018
Fire biomarker in Saharan dust traced across the Atlantic Ocean
In their new paper that was published in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta today, Laura Schreuder and colleagues apply a new proxy for burnt vegetation; the anhydrosugar levoglucosan, and demonstrate how this sugar can be found in present-day Saharan…
Thursday 01 March 2018
Dust storm on Texel
The extreme weather conditions (prolonged lack of rain and continuous gale-force winds) cause the top soils of pastures to be blown off. Even on Texel we have dust storms!
Tuesday 09 January 2018
NICO 2 samples Saharan dust
NICO expedition leg 2 was designed to study the impact of Saharan dust on the marine environment and they are sailing right through a Saharan-dust outbreak.
Sunday 26 November 2017
Biomarkers in Saharan dust
A new paper by Laura Schreuder and colleagues presents new data on terrestrial higher-plant biomarkers found in aerosols and marine sediments sampled along the DUSTTRAFFIC transatlantic array of sediment traps as well as in seafloor sediments.
Friday 20 October 2017
Saharan dust and Amazon freshwaters cause algal blooms
New findings suggest that both Saharan dust and freshwater from the Amazon may have led to algal blooms in the western equatorial Atlantic Ocean. Those are the conclusions of a new paper published by Catarina Guerreiro and colleagues in the…
