Excited that one of my passive #dust samplers is now deployed on the Monte Rosa massif in northern #italy! Thanks to collaborators from the University of Turin for making this unique opportunity possible. #dustsquared #CriticalZone #Alps #environment #geology #soil

As part of #DustSquared I maintain a network of samplers in the mountains of #utah and #nevada to capture mineral #dust blowing up from the deserts. A former student is making the big loop to empty them all this month, and I’m excited to follow along with his adventures! #fieldwork #geology #soil

The #dust samplers I use for #dustsquared are covered by #snow each winter. That might sound like a problem, but results suggest that longer snow cover actually corresponds with more dust accumulation! To test this at the limit, I deployed two collectors after the hot summer of 2022 at a site where snow typically doesn't melt out completely. In July, 2023 the collectors were still under 1 to 6 m of snow. Will be interesting to see how much dust they contain whenever they emerge again!

As part of the #DustSquared #CriticalZone project, I maintain a network of mountain #dust samplers in the southwestern US. They reveal the strong connection between mineral dust and soil formation. Here, in the Uinta Mountains of #utah, more than half of the #soil would not exist without the long-term deposition of material carried up from the desert by the wind over thousands of years. That’s a big deal for the geoecology of these systems! #geology #alpine #drone

As part of the #NSF #CriticalZone meeting in Salt Lake City, #utah this week, I helped organize a field trip to the Atwater snow study site at Alta. Here’s a #drone photo of the group in front of the tower where some of the #dust collecting equipment for #DustSquared is located. Amazing to think that in late April, the depth of #snow on the ground was above the platform!