Wind Erosion at a Saline Playa Environment, Ebinur Lake, Xinjiang, China - A Case Study on the Source of Saline Dust Storm

Abstract

In many arid and semiarid lands, dry lake beds (saline playa) represent a tremendous source of unconsolidated salt-rich sediments that are available for aeolian transport. Severe salt-dust storms caused by the erosion of such landforms have become very harmful natural phenomena. Base on texture and appearance characteristic, five principal undisturbed playa surfaces for sampling to investigate the deflation rate and the vertical distribution of material abraded using a wind-tunnel experiment in this study. Two additional field deflation monitoring transect were aslo established to examine vertical deflation by wind from measurements of erosion pins at the Ebinur (dry) Lake. The results indicate that winds greater than 8 m/s is the main factor for inducing the erosion of the playa sediments. Soft salt, aeloian sediment and alluvial deposit are the main sources of the saline dust storms in Ebinur region. The near-surface vertical distribution of material abraded concentrated in 0 -10 cm height. The annual wind erosion rate ranged from 0.48 cm to 5.6 cm in the northwest portion of the lake and from 0.24 cm to 0.96 cm in the southeast portion.