New Mexico Geological Society Annual Spring Meeting — Abstracts

There are dust storms that originate in the El Paso region almost every year. There is scientific evidence that soil particles from the region, have been deposited in the southeastern part of Canada and vicinity. In about a day, particles from the region travel a long distance through the United States to reach the area of deposition.

By tracking down the path of these storms, we are able to see how dust particles from our region, are deposited as far as thousand of kilometers away in Canada. By using several scientific techniques, I will be able to verify that the dust particles from the El Paso area did migrate their way to Canada through these intense dust storms. I performed ion chromatography on the samples for their ionic levels. The samples are also being analyzed with the Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry and the Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope. The ICPMS gives the inorganic constituents and ESEM lets you view the particles at a micron size fraction. By using these scientific instruments, I can determine where the particles in the Canadian precipitation originated from. I have been working with IMPROVE data, to determine changes that occur in atmospheric ionic levels as these storms make their way to their Canadian destination. IMPROVE is a data base that has measurements of particles in the atmosphere taken from its nationwide locations on three day intervals. I used data from the states in the path of these dust storms. It is well known that long range transport can deposit pollutants into the precipitation. The research I am conducting will help give a better understanding of long range transport from the El Paso area, and how pollutants in one area of the country can descend in the precipitation far from were the aerosols came from.