„Why the hell do you go to Cape Verde to collect Saharan dust??“ was the question that Mirja was confronted with several times by the locals at Cape Verde in October. Of course it would be much easier to collect the sand straight from the Sahara desert in one day instead of mounting boxes on a construction ruin at Cape Verde that wait to be filled during the expected dust events in the next few months…

However, the sandy dust, coming to Cape Verde with the winds all the way from the Sahara several times a year, undergoes chemical modifications during transport and thus has a different composition compared to the sand lying on the desert ground of Sahara. In the end, after successful collection the boxes with sand will be transported to Canary Islands and used for Mesocosm experiments there next year (click here for more information).

With great support from the whole CVOO team from INDP the dust sampling preparations were conducted successfully at Baia das Gatas. The next dust event is awaited excitedly. Let’s hope the boxes don’t disappear due to the strong winds or some curious kids…

By Martina Lohmann