Principal Investigator David McGee
Mineral dust from the world’s deserts is an important tracer of atmospheric circulation patterns and an active player in Earth’s radiation balance and biogeochemical cycles. Our work reconstructs past variations in dust deposition in marine sediments using uranium and thorium isotopes. Ongoing work reconstructing North African dust emissions points to dramatic, sometimes abrupt changes in North African climate and provides insight into the role of dust as an amplifier of African climate change. New projects include work to document past changes in atmospheric circulation in East Asia by using Sr, Nd and Pb isotopes to track changes in dust source, and measurements of Th isotopes in seawater to improve the understanding of modern dust deposition in the ocean.