Features of sand-dust deposits in Harbin city, China

From the sedimentologic view, this paper analyses the grain-size distribution and the chemical composition of the deposits from sand-dust storm, occurring in Harbin on March 20, 2002. The result indicates that there exist plentiful coarse matters in the sand-dust deposits in Harbin, and the sand-dust composition presents obvious three peak distribution characteristics, indicating that the sand-dust in Harbin is composed of multi-origin components. The grain-size composition consists of silt (4–8Φ), accounting for 71.18% of the total, sand (>4Φ), 21.70%, and clay (<8Φ), only 7.13%. The average grain size (Mz) is 5.14Φ. The chemical elements of the deposits are mainly SiO2 and Al2O3 and Fe2O3, totally occupying 77.8%. The enrichment factors (EF) of Mg, K, Si, Fe, Mn, P, Ti, Co, Ni and V elements are all about 1, which mainly come from lithosphere source, while parts of Cu, Pb, Zn, Cr and Se elements are from pollution sources out of lithosphere source, and As, Cd and Sb elements are mainly from pollution sources. Based on the comprehensive analysis of grain-size, chemical composition, enrichment factor (EF), discriminant function (DF) and matter source index (PI), this paper points out that the grain-size distribution and element composition of the sand-dust deposits in Harbin are evidently different from the loess and sand-dust in Lanzhou, and that matter source of the sand-dust in Harbin is different from the loess in Northwest China and the sand-dust in Lanzhou. The sand-dust deposits in Harbin are an admixture of coarse grains transmitted in short distance and fine grains transported in long distance. The plentiful coarse grains of the sand-dust deposits in Harbin origin from sand of local spot, and are the near-source deposits transported by low altitude airflow.