Abstract
Quartz and mica contents of soils developed on volcanic materials in the Canary Archipelago (Lanzarote, Tenerife, Gomera and La Palma islands), off western Africa are often higher in surficial horizons with higher rainfall and older landscape age. The soil quartz particles are fine-grained (less than 53 μm in diameter) and well-sorted. The oxygen isotopic abundance (δ 18O SMOW) of fine aerosol-sized quartz (1–10 μm in diameter) showed a range of +16.0 to +18.2%‰. The values are compatible with those of the same sized-quartz from two Holocene deep sea sediments in Cape Verde Rise (+16.0 and +16.1%‰) and Saharan dusts (+15.8%‰; La Laguna, Tenerife, +16.2%‰; Barbados, West Indies). A distinct 87Sr/ 86Sr ratio of 0.717 for a micaceous horizon from Lanzarote is comparable with those of Saharan dusts (0.715 to 0.721), but not with reported values (0.7032) from local volcanics. These geochemical parameters show that the fine-grained quartz together with mica in soils of the Canary Archipelago are transported from north African (Sahara) deserts by Trade Winds, and negate both possibilities of authigenesis and inheritance from weathering of local volcanics.
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