Physical properties of suspended dust during moist and low wind conditions in Iceland

We measured a dust event which occurred during wet and low wind/windless conditions as the result of surface heating in August 2013. Maximum particle number concentration (PM~0.3-10 μm) reached 149,954 particles cm-3 min-1 while mass concentration (PM<10 μm) was 1757 μg m-3 min-1. The suspended d...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Pavla Dagsson Waldhauserová 1980-, Ólafur Arnalds 1954-, Haraldur Ólafsson 1965-, Lenka Skrabalova, Guðmunda María Sigurðardóttir 1982-, Martin Branis, Jindrich Hladil, Roman Skala, Tomas Navratil, Leona Chadimova, Sibylle von Lowis of Menar, Þröstur Þorsteinsson 1972-, Hanne Krage Carlsen, Ingibjörg Jónsdóttir 1969-
Other Authors: Landbúnaðarháskóli Íslands
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2014
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1946/19874
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Summary:We measured a dust event which occurred during wet and low wind/windless conditions as the result of surface heating in August 2013. Maximum particle number concentration (PM~0.3-10 μm) reached 149,954 particles cm-3 min-1 while mass concentration (PM<10 μm) was 1757 μg m-3 min-1. The suspended dust was very fine with the highest number of particles in the size range 0.3-0.337 μm, followed by particles 1.5-5 μm in diameter. Close-to-ultrafine particle size distributions showed a significant increase in number with the severity of the measured dust event (during dust peaks). Number concentrations were well correlated with mass concentrations. The mineralogy and geochemical compositions showed that glaciogenic dust contains sharp-tipped shards with bubbles and 80 % of the particulate matter is volcanic glass rich in heavy metals. Wet dust particles were mobilized within < 4 hours. This is the first scientific study of particle size distributions in an Icelandic dust event including findings on initiation of dust suspension. Tækjum var komið fyrir á Mælifellsandi norðan Mýrdalsjökuls til mælinga á ryki á upptakasvæði rykmengunar í ágúst 2013. Við mældum einn „rykatburð“ sem átti sér stað við mjög lágan vindstyrk þegar sandurinn hitnaði í sólskini. Hámarksstyrkur korna (PM~0,3-10 μm) náði um 150 000 kornum cm-3 mínútu-1 á meðan þéttleiki (PM<10 μm) var 1757 μg m-3 mínútu-1. Rykið var mjög fínkorna með flest kornin 0,3-0,337 μm en næst felst af kornastærðinni 1,5-5 μm. Hlutdeild mjög fínna korna jókst með rykmagninu. Fjöldi korna og kornastyrkur fylgdust vel að. Bergfræði og jarðefnafræði kornanna sýndi að þessi jökulættuðu rykkorn voru sum oddhvöss og blöðrótt og að 80% efnanna er gosgler með háu innihaldi af ýmsum þungmálmum. Rykkornin tókust á loft eftir að hafa þornað < 4 tíma. Þessar rannsóknir eru þær fyrstu sem sýna kornastærðir ryks á fokstað þegar rykframleiðsla á sér stað og þær fyrstu til að sýna aðstæður þegar rykmengun verður nánast í logni.