Supercharged soil arrives down south on Sunday

No one likes to see the soil blow, especially when its grain producers in the middle of a very long drought. However their loss ( if it is theirs?), is a good gain for us . The heavy dusting on sunday night last was about 20kg /ha of good fertilizer for us; Not of course enough to greatly modify the pH here ( farmers would use more like 100 times that)
The dust contains significant amounts of calcium, magnesium, potassium, sulphates and carbonates, giving the material a pH of 8 – just what our southern acid soils need. The cycling of these various fertilizer compounds back to the topsoils of southern Victoria is a positive net gain thing, as the elements are easily leached out of our higher-rainfall soils.

The wide-spread and even distribution of eroded surface materials appears to only occur occasionally when the turbulent edge of frontal systems manages to transfer these flat, highly charged fine pieces high into the upper atmosphere.
Just where the dust came from may be revealed when Met bureau do a false colour analysis of the satellite imagery.(Here's hoping they do)
The source is most likely to be the mallee grain growing areas as the soil pH, colour and clay content indicate parilla type clays. These clays have been moving about for eons and this last trip south is, overall, a bigger plus for us and the southern ocean ( where the iron stimulates plankton production) than it is a loss for up north .
There are large areas of some similiar soil types in the dry centre and if there is another mechanism by which these highly charged particles get up there ( the sucking effect) and spread there (the superspreading effect everybody , it seems got about the same amount- amazing )it would be nice to know - esp for farmers currently implicated . Understanding dusts clear earth cooling effects ( climate changes)is another reason to better understand what actually happens here.

After all, these naturally highly charged particles haven't got the same attention as water and lightning has, (Apparently geologists have observed large discharges created by ash in active volcanoes-- so there you go !)
Saharan studies , for example, too , have shown that the transfer of particles to very high altitudes can occur with quite heavy silicate loads.( the physics of which it would be good to hear about! see posting on yahoo here)
We wait and see - great to have all those satellites, and all that data eh!
Maybe we can and will look after the earth better? - now that we have a more objective long term view - we don't have any excuse eh!