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Dust storms, volcanic ash hurricanes, and turbidity currents: physical similarities and differences with emphasis on flow temperature

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Abstract

We analyze similarities and differences between three natural phenomena of common occurrence on Earth, which are studied in environmental geosciences: dust storms, volcanic ash hurricanes, and turbidity currents. The discussion combines field and experimental observations and physical concepts with the aim of proposing general guidelines for multiphase flow modeling in geosciences. All of these phenomena are fascinating, but their potentially dangerous interaction with the environment and human infrastructures makes them worthy of particular attention. The main similarity between the three phenomena is the transportation of fine particles, i.e., dust, over distances of several tens to thousands of kilometers, whereas the main difference is the origin and distribution of the particle load in the environment. Finally, we propose a thermal model for the volcanic case, which is applicable to any particulate currents sedimenting and depositing dust on Earth.

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Acknowledgments

We thank two reviewers, guest editor Arnau Folch and the editorial staff for making suggestions on the topic of dust and for assisting this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Meccanica, Matematica e Management, Politecnico di Bari, Via Re David 200, 70125, Bari, Italy

    Domenico M. Doronzo

  2. Centro de Geociencias, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Blvd. Juriquilla 3001, 76230, Queretaro, Mexico

    Domenico M. Doronzo

  3. Institute of Earth Sciences “Jaume Almera”, CSIC, Lluis Solé Sabaris s/n, 08028, Barcelona, Spain

    Joan Martí

  4. Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra e Geoambientali, Università degli Studi di Bari, Via Orabona 4, 70125, Bari, Italy

    Pierfrancesco Dellino & Roberto Sulpizio

  5. Dipartimento di Scienze, Sezione di Scienze Geologiche, Università “Roma Tre”, Largo San Murialdo 1, 00146, Rome, Italy

    Guido Giordano

Authors
  1. Domenico M. Doronzo
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  2. Joan Martí
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  3. Pierfrancesco Dellino
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  4. Guido Giordano
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  5. Roberto Sulpizio
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Domenico M. Doronzo.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on DUST

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Doronzo, D.M., Martí, J., Dellino, P. et al. Dust storms, volcanic ash hurricanes, and turbidity currents: physical similarities and differences with emphasis on flow temperature. Arab J Geosci 9, 290 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-016-2351-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-016-2351-8

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