Role of Chinese wind-blown dust in enhancing environmental pollution in Metropolitan Seoul

A suite of rock magnetic experiments and intensive microscopic observations were carried out on Asian dust deposits in Seoul, Korea, collected on 19 and 23 March 2002, 9 April 2002 and 12 April 2003. Desert-sand and loess from the dust source regions in China were also analyzed as a comparison. Asian dust showed a higher magnetic concentration than the source region samples, indicating a significant influx of magnetic particles into Asian dust had occurred during its transportation. Electron microscopy identified carbon-bearing iron-oxides as the added material. These iron-oxides were likely to have been produced by anthropogenic pollution (fossil fuel combustion) while the wind-blown dusts passing across the industrial areas of eastern China and western Korea. Such wind-paths were confirmed by a simulation of the air-mass trajectories. The magnetic technique appears to be useful for determining the anthropogenic pollution of Asian dust.