Aeolian Sand Size on the Surface of the Northern Foothill of Yinshan Mountain

Abstract

Sand samplers were laid out in the grassland in the northern foot of Yinshan Mountain for collecting soil flux samples from 0 to 1.5m height above the surface from Mar, 1, 2008 to Feb,29,2009.Grain size parameters proposed by Folk and Ward, including average, SD, skewness and kurtosis of grain size were used. The vertical distribution of grain size characteristic of sediments trapped by sand samplers in different seasons was analyzed by using electrical mirror technology. The results indicated that size of aeolian sand in desert steppe is mainly sand and silt. The content of coarse silt, very fine sand and medium sand are 20~60%,10~30% and 10~20%,respectively,in the sediment–for all seasons. As height increased, the content of sand decreased while silt increased and the mean size of particle changed from fine sand to very fine sand. The mean diameter of particle ranged from 2.4~4.2and standard deviation ranged from 0.7~1.5Skewness is positive with the value ranges from 0 to 0.2,while Kurtosis mainly concentrated on 0.7 to 1.3.