Provenance tracing of dust using rare earth elements in recent snow deposited during the pre-monsoon season from mountain glaciers in the central to northern Tibetan Plateau.

To provide insight into dust sources in snow deposited during the non-monsoon period on the Tibetan Plateau, detailed post-Archean Australian shale (PAAS)-normalized rare earth element (REE) distribution patterns and variations in REE tracers, such as La/Yb, La/Er, and Gd/Yb with depth, as well as the distribution of samples in the plots of REE ratio pairs, such as La/Yb vs. Y/ΣREE, La/Er vs. Gd/Er, and Y/La vs. Nd/Er, were compared in seven potential dust source areas in Asia. Snow samples from five glaciers, i.e., Qiumianleike (QMLK), Meikuang (MK), Yuzhufeng (YZF), Xiaodongkemadi (XDKMD), and Gurenhekou (GRHK), were collected from April 26 to May 13 before the onset of monsoon activity. The results show that dust trapped in snow pits from the studied glaciers, i.e., QMLK, MK, XDKMD, and GRHK, has varying degrees of contribution from the Taklimakan Desert, Qaidam Basin, and the surface soil of the Tibetan Plateau. There are signals of the Tengger and Badain Jaran Desert and Chinese Loess in the MK and XDKMD snow pit samples or in the QMLK and GRHK surface samples from the REE tracers; however, from the point of view of the land location, the three dust sources should not be the major contributors. Signals of dust from the Indian Thar Desert were occasionally detected from the MK, YZF, and XDKMD snow pit samples and GRHK surface snow samples, implying the intrusion of early Indian monsoon activities to the sites. The dust signal from the Thar Desert in India from the YZF glacier is significantly greater than that from the XDKMD and MK glaciers. These findings were also supported by the tracer of dust transmitted to the three snow pits through the air mass backward trajectories. The new finding of this study is that dust from the Indian Desert can even reach the Kunlun Mountains in the northern region of the Tibetan Plateau. The conclusions are helpful in interpreting the sources of dust and the pollutants absorbed by dust particles, as well as the extent of the impact of Indian monsoon activities at the end of the non-monsoon season on the plateau.