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[1] The Portable In situ Wind ERosion Lab (PI-SWERL) was developed to measure dust emissions from soil surfaces. This small, portable unit can test the emissivity of soils in areas that are difficult to access with a field wind tunnel, and can complete a larger number of tests in less time. The PI-SWERL consists of a cylindrical enclosure containing an annular flat blade that rotates at different speeds, which generates shear stress upon the surface. The shear stress generated by PI-SWERL results in the entrainment of particles including dust. PI-SWERL was developed to provide an index of dust emission potential comparable to the field wind tunnel. The PI-SWERL dust emission results were compared against those obtained from a $12 m long, 1 m wide, 0.75 m high straight line suction-type portable field wind tunnel by conducting collocated tests at 32 distinct field settings and soil conditions in the Mojave Desert of southern California. Clay-to sand-rich soils that displayed a range of crusting, gravel cover, and disturbance were tested. The correspondence between dust emissions (mg m À2 s À1 ) for the two instruments is nearly 1:1 on most surfaces. Deviation between the two instruments was noted for densely packed gravel surfaces. For rough surfaces a correction can be applied to the PI-SWERL that results in comparable dust emission data to the wind tunnel. PI-SWERL can be used to complement research efforts in aeolian geomorphology aimed to quantify spatial and temporal patterns of dust emissions as well as air quality research related to dust emissions.

Studies of key and newly discovered sections of the Upper Cretaceous Djadokhta Formation along the southern margin of the Ulan Nur Basin allow a new subdivision based on lithology. The formation and its members were mapped at both Bayn Dzak, an area that includes the Flaming Cliffs, and Tugrugyin Shireh, an area about 50 km to the northwest of Bayn Dzak. Stratigraphic sections at both localities were remeasured. The considerably enlarged formation comprises a lower Bayn Dzak Member, dominated by moderate reddish orange sands with subordinate mudstone units, and an upper Tugrugyin Member, composed of pale orange to light gray sands. Investigations of key sections at Tsonzh and Alag Teer demonstrate the presence of transitional mudstone lenses between these members within the Djadokhta Formation. Two distinct, sandy, sedimentologic facies are recognized in both members. Cross-bedded intervals, occasionally exhibiting wind-ripple cross lamination, document the presence). 2 NO. 3498 AMERICAN MUSEUM NOVITATES of a Cretaceous dunefield in the Ulan Nur Basin. Structureless intervals are interpreted to represent wet sandy fluvial deposits and debris flows that moved down the dune faces. In the Bayn Dzak Member, lenses of brownish mudstone are interpreted to represent interdune de-position in shallow ponds by fluvial action. Fluvial action is also represented in the Bayn Dzak Member by beds of caliche, which contain conglomerate at the base but fine upward into limestone. The vertebrate fauna from the Djadokhta Formation is summarized. Although the Bayn Dzak fauna lived somewhat earlier than that from Tugrugyin Shireh based on the superposition of the members, it is not clear how much earlier. The fauna from the Djadokhta Formation has previously been assigned ages from Cenomanian to earliest Maastrichtian. New magne-tostratigraphic data document a sequence of normal and reversed magnetozones through the Bayn Dzak Member up into the basal Tugrugyin Member. The presence of reversed magne-tozones establishes that the sediments containing the faunas were probably deposited after C34n. The quick stratigraphic succession of normal and reversed magnetozones suggests, but does not clearly establish, that the sediments may have been deposited during the rapid sequence of polarity changes in the late part of the Campanian between about 75 to 71 Ma.

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