Mineralogical characteristics of airborne particles collected in Beijing during a severe Asian dust storm period in spring 2002

Asian dust storm (ADS) samples were collected on March 20, 2002 in Beijing, China. High-resolution field emission scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray detector (FESEM-EDX) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were used to study the morphology, chemical compositions, number-size distributions and mineralogical compositions of ADS particles. The mineral particles were major components in the ADS samples, accounting for 94% by number. The XRD analysis indicated that the dust particles were dominated by clay (40.3%), and quartz (19.5%), followed by plagioclase (8.4%), calcite (7.5%), K-feldspar (1.5%), hematite (0.9%), pyrite (0.9%), hornblende (0.4%) and gypsum (0.3%), with a certain amount of noncrystalline materials (20.3%). Clay minerals were mainly illite/smectite mixed layers (78%), followed by illite (9%), kaolinite (6%), and chlorite (7%). In addition to these main minerals, FESEM-EDX also detected some trace minerals, such as dolomite, pyrite, thenardite, as well as heavy minerals represented by rutile, ilmenite and apatite. The mineralogical compositions of the 2002-03-20 Asian dust storm and the Saharan dust plumes were similar but the clay mineralogy showed a great distinction, with the illite/smectite mixed layers being common in the Asian dust storm but illite being common in the Saharan dust plumes.