Pedogenic evidence of Urmia Lake's maximum expansion in the late Quaternary

Hamzehpour, Nikou; Eghbal, Mostafa Karimian; Abasiyan, Sara Mola Ali; Dill, Harald G.

doi:10.1016/j.catena.2018.07.019

Cited by 20 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…They reasoned that these clay minerals are of geologic rather than pedogenic origin as these soils experienced hardly any periods with favorable conditions for soil forming processes. Similar results have been reported for western and southern parts of LU (Manafi, 2010;Hamzehpour et al, 2018). Illite, vermiculite, kaolinite and mixed layer illite-smectite have been identified as dominant clay minerals near LU by Ahmady-Birgani et al (2015).…”

Section: Mineralogical Compositionsupporting

confidence: 84%

“…Soil organic matter is only present in relatively low amounts and varies between 0.5 % and 6.0 % (Table 2). These are typical values for soils in the western LU region, where OM is mostly below 3 % (Hamzehpour et al, 2018). For comparison, soil OM for annual crop fields in Iran varies from 0.34 % to 4.88 % with an average of 2.1 % (Bahadori and Tofighi, 2016).…”

Section: Physicochemical Properties Of Lake Urmia Playa Soil Typesmentioning

confidence: 85%

“…Mean organic matter of the samples was determined as 2.4 ± 1.4 %, with Soil Sa having the highest content with 5.3 %, which is indeed quite high for soils in the northwest of Iran, where OM is mostly lower than 3 % (Hamzehpour et al, 2018). As previously discussed, Soil Sa is taken from an abandoned agricultural land and despite high OM content, which should prevent soil erodibility (Motaghi et al, 2020), this area has become a dust source due to destruction of soil aggregates and soil structure.…”

Section: Physicochemical Characteristics Of Soil and Dust Samplesmentioning

confidence: 85%

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The Urmia Playa as source of airborne dust and ice nucleating particles – Part 1: Correlation between soils and airborne samples

Hamzehpour

Marcolli

Pashai

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Abstract. The emergence of desiccated lakebed sediments and their exposure to wind erosion as a consequence of climate change and drought in arid and semiarid regions of the world poses a growing hazard. Airborne dust originating from such soils can create health and environmental issues due to their high salt content and the presence of toxic elements. The aim of the present study is twofold, namely to investigate the newly emerged playa surfaces of the western Lake Urmia (LU) in Iran and their contribution to aerosol in the region by means of physicochemical, mineralogical and elemental analyses, and to study the ice nucleation (IN) activity of both surface-collected soil and airborne dust samples. The playa surfaces created by desiccation of LU on the west shores were mapped and sampled at 130 locations. Soil samples were subjected to physicochemical analyses and their erodible fraction was determined. Based on these analyses, four highly erodible playa surfaces from northwest to the south of LU were selected as sites for collection of dust by impaction and soil samples from the uppermost surface. Their particle physicochemical properties (size distribution, elemental and mineralogical composition) were compared with their IN activity determined by emulsion freezing experiments in a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) in two suspension concentrations of 2 wt % and 5 wt %. The physicochemical soil properties differed significantly between the different playa surfaces, which affects their susceptibility to wind erosion. Sand sheets and sandy salt crusts were the most erodible playa surfaces due to their high sand fraction, low organic matter and clay content, favoring the presence of small aggregates. Mineralogical analyses document the prevalence of quartz, carbonates and clay minerals such as kaolinite, palygorskite and chlorite in all of the samples. The predominant elements in the samples are Ca, Fe, Al, Si and Na and in some cases Ba, Sr and Zn. The correlation between soil and dust samples based on mineralogical composition, elemental enrichment factors, and physicochemical properties confirm that the playa surfaces are the major contributors to dust in the region. IN activity with onset temperatures ranging from 245 to 250 K demonstrates the high potential of dust blown from Urmia playa surfaces to affect cloud properties and precipitation. Freezing onset temperatures and the fraction of heterogeneously frozen droplets in the emulsions reveal variations in IN activity depending on the mineralogical composition of the samples, but also influenced by organic matter, salinity and pH. Specifically, IN activity correlates positively with organic matter and clay minerals, and negatively with pH and salinity, and, surprisingly, also negatively with K-feldspar and quartz content. The high wind erodibility and dust production of the LU playa surfaces together with their high IN activity can play an important role in the climate of the region and thus needs careful monitoring and specific attention.

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Section: Mineralogical Compositionsupporting

confidence: 84%

Section: Physicochemical Properties Of Lake Urmia Playa Soil Typesmentioning

confidence: 85%

Section: Physicochemical Characteristics Of Soil and Dust Samplesmentioning

confidence: 85%

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The Urmia Playa as source of airborne dust and ice nucleating particles – Part 1: Correlation between soils and airborne samples

Hamzehpour

Marcolli

Pashai

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…The lacustrine sedimentary deposits addressed in Section 4.1.6 bridge the gap into the topstratum of most of the sediments under study, i.e., the soil. Pedological evidence of regression and expansion reflected in the lake sediments and resultant strandlines could be achieved for the late Quaternary of the shore zone of Lake Urmia, Iran [152]. Unlike the sediments under consideration in Section 4.1, this unconsolidated in situ accumulation of minerals not only contains organic but also living matter, which renders it relevant for the growth of plants and trees.…”

Section: Pedology-from the Ephemeral Lacustrine Environment To The Chemical Sediments-the Issue Of Physical-chemical Markersmentioning

confidence: 95%

Trends and Composition—A Sedimentological-Chemical-Mineralogical Approach to Constrain the Origin of Quaternary Deposits and Landforms—From a Review to a Manual

Dill

2022

Geosciences

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In this study, six basic Quaternary landform series (LFS) and their sedimentary deposits (LFS1 aeolian, LFS 2.1 to 2.2 mass wasting, LFS 3 cryogenic-glacial, LFS 4.1 to 4.6 fluvial, LFS 5.1 to 5.2 coastal-marine, LFS 6.1 to 6.3 lacustrine) are subdivided into subtypes and examined with regard to their sedimentological parameters and their mineralogical and chemical compositions. Emphasis is placed on the textural (related to transport and deposition), compositional (sediment load/weight, Eh and pH) and geodynamic maturity of the sedimentary deposits which are influenced by the parent lithology and bedrock tectonic and by the climate during the last 2 Ma. To constrain the development of the LFS and their sediments, composite trend-line diagrams are designed combining sedimentological (x-axis) and chemical/mineralogical dataset (y-axis): (1) sorting vs. heavy mineral content; (2) sphericity of grains vs. silica/carbonate contents; and (3) median vs. Ti/Fe ratios. In addition, the x-y plots showing the log SiO2/Al2O3 vs. log Na2O/K2O are amended by a dataset of the three most common clay minerals, i.e., kaolinite-, mica-, and smectite-group clay minerals. Such joint sedimentological-chemical-mineralogical investigations focused on the depositional environment of unconsolidated clastic sediments of Quaternary age can be used to describe the economic geology and environmental geology of mineral deposits in the pre-Quaternary sedimentary series according to the phrase: “The Present is the key to the Past”. Both trend diagrams and compositional x-y plots can contribute to constraining the development of the full transect of landform series from the fluvial incision and slope retreat to reef islands fringing the coastal zone towards the open sea as far as they are built up of clastic sedimentary deposits enriched in siliceous and/or carbonate minerals. Climate zonation and crustal maturity are the exogenous and endogenous “drivers”, as can be deduced from the compositional (mineralogy and chemistry) and physical (transport and deposition) variations observed in the Quaternary sediments. The current study bridges the gap between a review only based on literature and a hybrid manual generated by practical field studies devoted to applied geosciences in economic and environmental geology (“E & E issue”).

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“…In this study, we focus on desiccation of Lake Urmia (LU), one of the biggest salt lakes in the world in the northwest of Iran. Increasing soil salinity, which negatively affects plant growth and crop production, led to soil erosion and land degradation (Gorji et al, 2020;Jiang et al, 2019;Scudiero et al, 2015), and resulted in the remain of vast barren lands composed of fine textured, lacustrine sediments (Hamzehpour et al, 2018;Shadkam et al, 2016;Farokhnia and Morid, 2014). These saline areas with limited vegetation cover in most parts might be of high vulnerability to wind erosion due to their unique physicochemical characteristics.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Urmia Playa as source of airborne dust and ice nucleating particles – Part 2: Unraveling the relationship between soil dust composition and ice-nucleation activity

Hamzehpour

Marcolli

Klumpp

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Abstract. Ice-nucleating particles (INPs) originating from deserts, semi-arid regions and dried lakebeds may cause heterogeneous ice nucleation impacting cloud properties. Recently, due to climate change and water scarcity, abandoned agricultural lands with little surficial crust and negligible vegetation cover have become an increasing source for atmospheric dust worldwide. Unlike deserts, these areas are rich in soluble salt and (bio-)organic compounds. Using soil samples from various sites of the Lake Urmia Playa (LUP) in northwestern Iran and airborne dusts collected at nearby meteorological stations we elucidate how minerals, soluble salts and organic matter interact to determine the IN activity of saline soils and dust. X-ray powder diffraction shows that the mineralogical composition is dominated by K-feldspars (microcline), quartz, carbonates, and clay minerals. The samples were stepwise stripped of organic matter, carbonates, and soluble salts. After each removal step, the ice nucleation (IN) activity was quantified in terms of onset freezing temperatures (Thet) and heterogeneously frozen fractions (Fhet) by emulsion freezing experiments using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). We examined the influence of soluble salts and pH on microcline and quartz in emulsion freezing experiments, and comparing these with reference suspensions of microcline and quartz, exposed to salt concentrations and pH characteristic of the LUP samples. These analyses, combined with correlations between Thet and Fhet, allow us to identify the components that contribute to or inhibit IN activity. The LUP dusts turn out to be very good INPs with freezing onset temperatures around 248 K in immersion freezing experiments. Interestingly, their IN activity proves to be dominated by the relatively small share of (bio-)organic matter (1–5.3 %). These organic INPs are rich in carbohydrates, cellulosic and proteinaceous compounds, as determined by thermogravimetric analysis coupled with mass spectrometry (TGA-MS). After organic matter removal, the remaining IN activity (Thet ≈ 244 K) can be traced back to the clay fraction, because Thet and Fhet correlate positively with the clay mineral content but negatively with quartz and microcline. We attribute the inability of quartz and microcline to act as INPs to the basic pH of the LUP samples as well as to the presence of soluble salts, which lower ice nucleation temperatures below the freezing point depression due to the salt-induced reduction in water activity. This is confirmed by the reference freezing experiments with quartz and microcline suspensions. After additionally removing soluble salts and carbonates, the IN activity of the samples increases again significantly (Thet ≈ 249 K) and the negative correlation with quartz and microcline turned into a slightly positive one, which we explain by the recovered active sites of these minerals. Removing carbonates and salts from the natural samples leads to an increase in Thet and Fhet as well, indicating that their presence also suppresses the IN activity of the (bio-)organic INPs. Carbonates and soluble salts could do this, for instance, through occlusion of (bio-)organic INPs from the solution by a cementing effect, through their adsorption on the mineral surface, through interactions with dissolved Ca2+ undergoing complexation with the organic matter, or a combination of these effects. Overall, this study demonstrates that mineral and organic INPs do not just add up to yield the IN activity of soil dust, but that the freezing behavior is governed by inhibiting and promoting interactions between the components.

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Pedogenic evidence of Urmia Lake's maximum expansion in the late Quaternary

Cited by 20 publications

References 43 publications

The Urmia Playa as source of airborne dust and ice nucleating particles – Part 1: Correlation between soils and airborne samples

The Urmia Playa as source of airborne dust and ice nucleating particles – Part 1: Correlation between soils and airborne samples

Trends and Composition—A Sedimentological-Chemical-Mineralogical Approach to Constrain the Origin of Quaternary Deposits and Landforms—From a Review to a Manual

The Urmia Playa as source of airborne dust and ice nucleating particles – Part 2: Unraveling the relationship between soil dust composition and ice-nucleation activity

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