An Investigation about the Sources of Ilam Dust

HAL Id: hal-02861791

https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02861791v2

Preprint submitted on 20 Jan 2022

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An Investigation about the Sources of Ilam Dust

Elham Mehrizi

To cite this version:

Elham Mehrizi. An Investigation about the Sources of Ilam Dust. 2022. �hal-02861791v2�

An Investigation about the Sources of Ilam Dust

Elham Mehrizi Abstract:

Dust particles phenomena are among the most serious environmental problems in various parts of the world. Iran's plateau is one of the areas susceptible to wind erosion due to the dry belt of the northern hemisphere, poor water supplies, low precipitation and soil moisture and disperse vegetation in most parts (cross-arid regions). The proposed work discusses that the number of days Ilam city (situated in west of Iran) faced with dust storms have been increased each year compared to the previous year between 2006-2009, probably due to some neighboring countries’

sources of dust. The dust storms reaching western part of Iran probably originate from sandy deserts and dried lakebeds located in neighboring countries where particles are lifted upwards and are carried over by winds to Iran.

Keywords: Dusty Days, Ilam dust, Neighboring dust sources.

1. Introduction:

Airborne dust removed from desert regions of the world poses a serious threat to the global environment. This includes the dry Iranian plateau which is severely impacted by wind erosion, exacerbated by poor water supply, low precipitation, deficient soil moisture, and sparse vegetation. Recent studies show that the number of dust sources in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Syria (all situated in west of Iran) have nearly tripled over the past two decades. It was shown that the number of dusty days increased in subsequent years in Ilam city (fig 3). The sources of dust in western Iran can often be traced to dried lakebeds, sandy deserts, as well as other natural and anthropogenic polluted regions of neighboring countries, carried over by wind to Iran.

The Ilam province (Fig. 1) lies in west of Iran, along the border with Iraq. Sadrian et al., 2014, 2019, 2020 performed and conducted a comprehensive study and measurement on the characterization of the mineralogy of this region’s dust particles. Sadrian et al., 2014 determined Ilam dust sources based on the mineralogy (measured using XRD) to possibly be from some close deserts regions located in neighboring countries.

Figure 1. The right picture is the map of Iran. The left picture is Ilam province which is shown with the yellow color and the little green point on the north of it is the study area which is Ilam City.

2. Study Area Location:

Ilam province located between 31° 58' to 34° 15' latitude and 45° 24' to 48° 10' longitude, occupies 19,086 km², and cover 1.4% of Iran's land area. The city of Ilam (33°38′15″N, 46°25′

22″E) was selected to study the properties and impact of dust (Fig. 1). It is located to the west of the Zagros Mountains, with lowlands dominant in the west and southwest. Based on official drought indices (SPI and Z), the Ilam city has in the past been severely affected by extreme dry condition. The reason that we study this area is that, despite the importance of its population, Ilam owns around 4% of the forest of Iran, but still, there is not any information about characteristics and sources of dustfall over Ilam city.

3. An Example of The Daily PM10 Measurements in Ilam in 2012:

Figure 2 (as an example) shows the PM10 Measurements by Ilam’s Meteorological organization within 4 month in 2012 from late March until late June. From figure 2, it is clear that the amount of PM10 drastically increasein mid-April, nearly whole May, and late in June. Also, from figure 2, it can be resulted that the average PM10 for Ilam city in these four months March-June is about 200 μg/m³, which is much higher than the worldwide standard for PM10.

Figure 2. Meteorological organization’s measurement of PM10 (μg/m³) for three months between March 20th, 2012 to June 20th, 2012. Horizontal line represents the average of all data and the blue line above defines daily measurement for PM10.

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000

PM10 rate (μg/m3)

Dates of collecting PM10

PM10 average

Ilam province has 425 km of common border with Iraq and it known as one of the provinces with the many dusty days in Iran. The occurrence of drought in Iran (in particular, in Ilam) and in its neighboring countries (Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Syria) between 2006-2009, along with the decrease in relative humidity and significant decrease in rainfall in recent years, has intensified dust storms phenomenon. Statistics show that Ilam had experienced 82, 99, 87, 39, 18 dusty days in 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, and 2006, respectively which had obscured the region’s sky and lowered the visibility (fig 3). This is probably due to the severe drought and extremely low precipitation of the neighboring countries desert areas which makes the lands potentially a good place for wind erosion. Sadrian et al., 2014 suggested that Ilam deposited airborne minerals might have originated from source areas close to the Ilam borders probably from neighboring countries (e.g. Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Syria).

Figure 3. This figure displays the increasing trend of dusty days in Ilam from 2006-2009.

4. Conclusion:

Sadrian et al., 2014 suggested that the mineralogy of dust particles in Ilam region might have been affected by the local geology as well as dust sources from neighboring countries. Because PM10 size dust particles are the most common in this region, dustfall might have originated from countries neighboring on Iran as well as from sources within Iran itself, such as those within the Ilam province. The geology of western Ilam province, as well as central and eastern Iraq, have desert areas with widespread dune sands, and are the main sources of the calcite particulates.

Clay minerals transported during dust storms are mostly from distal sources, characteristically environments affected by sedimentation and weathering. The deficiencies of local igneous and metamorphic minerals or heavy minerals in the studied specimens seem to suggest long-distance dust hotspots outside the province of Ilam, especially the countries to the west and northwest of Iran, including Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

5. References:

1. Zarasvandi, A., 2009. Environmental Imapcts of Dust Storms in the Khuzestan Province.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of Khuzestan Province, Internal Report. 375p.

2. Buchani, M.H., Fazeli, D., 2011. Environmental Issues and the consequences of Dust Particles in West of Iran. Seasonal Journal of Policy, Year second, No 3.

3. Sadrian, M.R.; Mohammadkhan, S.; Mashhadi, N.; Alavipanah, S.K. Mapping of Dust Fall Deposited in Ilam City in Fall, 2011, Winter and Spring, 2012. In Proceedings of 3^rd National Conference on Wind Erosion and Dust Storms, University of Yazd, Yazd, Iran, 2014.

4. Nouri, E., T. Ensafi Moghaddam, M. R. Sadrian, and J. P. Engelbrecht, 2018: The Concentration of a Number of Heavy Metals in Dust in Ilam, Iran and Their Impact on Quercus brantii Lindl in the Region. Second International Conference on Dust, University of Ilam, Ilam.

5. Mohammad Sadrian, Wendy Calvin. Absence of Quartz Absorption Features in LWIR Reflectance Spectra of Dust Samples. 100th American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting, Jan 2020, Boston, United States. ⟨hal-02612219⟩

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