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Geochemical Evidence For Airborne Dust Additions To Soils In Channel Islands National Park, California, Daniel R. Muhs, James R. Budahn, Donald L. Johnson, Marith Reheis, Jossh Beann, Gary Skipp, Eric Fischer, Julia A. Jones

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

There is an increasing awareness that dust plays important roles in climate change, biogeochemical cycles, nutrient supply to ecosystems, and soil formation. In Channel Islands National Park, California, soils are clay-rich Vertisols or Alfi sols and Mollisols with vertic properties. The soils are overlain by silt-rich mantles that contrast sharply with the underlying clay-rich horizons. Silt mantles contain minerals that are rare or absent in the volcanic rocks that dominate these islands. Immobile trace elements (Sc-Th-La and Ta-Nd-Cr) and rare-earth elements show that the basalt and andesite on the islands have a composition intermediate between upper-continental crust and oceanic crust. …