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.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Al-Awadhi JM, Al-Shuaibi A (2013) Dust fallout in Kuwait city: deposition and characterization. Sci Total Environ 461–462:139–148
Al-Awadhi JM, Al-Dousari AM, Khalaf FI (2014) Influence of land degradation on the local rate of dust fallout in Kuwait. Atmos Clim Sci 4:437–446
Al-Dousari AM, Al-Awadhi J (2012) Dust fallout in the northern Kuwait, major sources and characteristics. Kuwait J Sci Eng 39(2A):171–187
Al-Dousari AM, Al-Awadhi J, Ahmed M (2013) Dust fallout characteristics within global dust storm major trajectories. Arab J Geosci 6:3877–3884
Al-Dousari AM, Bahbahani M, Al-Awadhi L, Al-Zajali H (2004) Analysis of dust fallout data and sediments in Kuwait. Presented at the International Conference on Atmospheric Pollution, Dubai, February 21–24., pp 34–46
Al-Dousari AM, Al-Elaj M, Al-Enezi E, Al-Shareeda A (2009) Origin and characteristics of yardangs in the Um Al-Rimam depressions (N Kuwait). Geomorphology 104:93–104
Al-Harbi M (2013) Characteristics and composition of the falling dust in urban environment. Int J Environ Sci and Tech 12:641–652
Al-Hurban AE (2014) Effects of recent anthropogenic activities on the surface deposits of Kuwait. Arab J Geosci 7:665–691
Al-Hurban AE, Al-Ostad AN (2010) Textural characteristics of dust fallout and potential effect on public health in Kuwait City and suburbs. Environ Earth Sci 60:169–181
Al-Olayan MA, Brown KW, Evans JS, Bouhamra WS, Koutrakis P (2013) Source apportionment of fine particles in Kuwait City. Sci Total Environt 448:14–25
Bennion P, Hubbard R, O’Hara S, Wiggs G, Wegerdt J, Lewis S, Small I, van der Meer J, Upshur R (2007) The impact of airborne dust on respiratory health in children living in the Aral Sea region. Int J of Epidemiol 36(5):1103–1110
Brown KW, Bouhamra W, Lamoureux D, Evans JS, Koutrakis P (2008) Characterization of particulate matter for three sites in Kuwait. J Air Waste Manage 58:994–1003
Cao Z, Yang Y, Lu J, Zhang J (2011) Atmospheric particle characterization, distribution, and deposition in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, Central China. Environ Pollut 159:577–584
Derbyshire E, Meng X, Kemp RA (1998) Provenance, transport and characteristics of modern aeolian dust in western Gansu Province, China, and interpretation of the Quaternary loess record. J Arid Environ 39:497–516
Goudie AS (2014) Desert dust and human health disorders. Environ Int 63:101–113
Ji ZG (2008) Hydrodynamics and water quality—modeling rivers, lakes and estuaries. Wiley-Interscience, New Jersey, USA
Lawrence CR, Neff JC (2009) The contemporary physical and chemical flux of aeolian dust: a synthesis of direct measurements of dust deposition. Chem Geol 267:46–63
Miller SD, Kuciauskas AP, Liu M, Ji Q, Reid JS, Breed DW, Walker AL, Al-Mandoos A (2008) Haboob dust storms of the southern Arabian Peninsula. J Geophys Res 113(D01202):26
Mohamed MA (1978) Preliminary marine geological studies on recent sediments of Kuwait Bay. J Univ Kuwait (Sci) 5:161–178
Najafi MS, Khoshakhllagh F, Zamanzadeh SM, Shirazi MH, Samadi M, Hajikhani S (2014) Characteristics of TSP loads during the Middle East springtime dust storm (MESDS) in western Iran. Arab J Geosci 7:5367–5381
Neelamani, S., M. Al-Sudairawi, A. Al-Dousari, A. Al-Homood, M. Ahmed, N. Al-Dousari and M. Abdullah. (2015). Probability and Statistical Analysis of Total Suspended Atmospheric Particulate Matter in Kuwait, EC082C, Final Report, KISR 12584, February 2015.
Ravi S, D’Odorico P, Breshears DD, Field JP, Goudie AS, Huxman TE, Li L, Okin GS, Swap RJ, Thomas AD, Pelt SV, Whicker JJ, Zobeck TM (2011) Aeolian process and the biosphere. Rev Geophys 49:1–45
Safar MI (1980) Frequency of dust in day-time summer in Kuwait. Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Kuwait.
Thalib L, Al-Taiar A (2012) Dust storms and the risk of asthma admissions to hospitals in Kuwait. Sci Total Environ 433:347–351
Zhang R, Wang M, Sheng L, Kanai Y, Ohta A (2004) Seasonal characterization of dust days, mass concentration and dry deposition of atmospheric aerosols over Qindao, China. China Particuology 2(5):196–199
Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) and the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS) for financing this study through the grant 2012-4401-01.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Neelamani, S., Al-Dousari, A. A study on the annual fallout of the dust and the associated elements into the Kuwait Bay, Kuwait. Arab J Geosci 9, 210 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-015-2236-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-015-2236-2