A study on the annual fallout of the dust and the associated elements into the Kuwait Bay, Kuwait

Abstract

Kuwait has an ecologically fragile bay called the Kuwait Bay, which is a marine water body with about 850 km2 areas, surrounded by the Kuwaiti land area and opened to the Arabian Gulf in the east. Kuwait is a country with severe dust storms. The dust falling into the Kuwait Bay is one of the main sources of sediments, nutrients, and pollutants. The falling dust contains many metallic elements, minerals, soluble, and insoluble matters. Some of the elements, like nitrate and phosphate, in the falling dust are beneficial for the marine life and some are harmful, like mercury and cadmium. Hence, it is essential to estimate the amount of dust and the associated elements falling into the bay annually. Falling dust was collected using passive dust sample collectors for a period of 3 years (from August 2009 to July 2011 and again from September 2013 to August 2014) from different locations around the Bay, and the annual dust fallout into the bay was estimated. The annual dust fallout from August 2009 to July 2010 and from August 2010 to July 2011 was estimated as 225,186 and 283,172 t, respectively. During September 2013 to August 2014, the total dust fallout into the Kuwait Bay was estimated as 94,282.0 t. The amount of different metallic elements, minerals, soluble, and insoluble elements that fell into the Bay during these 3 years was also assessed and provided. It is estimated that 4569 t of iron; 12,743 t of clay; 99,818 t of quartz; 14,177 t of sulfate; and 169,167 t of ash have fallen into Kuwait Bay during August 2010 to July 2011. The amount of these elements that fall into Kuwait Bay has increased by 26 % during August 2011 to July 2012 but reduced by about 58 % during September 2013 to August 2014. This information will be useful for the study on the positive and negative impacts of fallen dust on marine life, biogeochemical reactions, fish kills, etc.