Investigating of Susceptibility of Maharloo Lake Sediments to Wind Erosion and Determination of Dust Movement Direction

Wind erosion is one of the most important natural processes in arid and semi-arid regions. In recent years, due to lake drying, dust producing has been increased from lakes and wetlands surfaces. Maharloo Lake, as one of the most important saline lakes of Iran, dried up in recent years. This research aims to study the susceptibility of Maharloo Lake sediments to wind erosion and determining of direction of the Lake surface dust movement. At first step, texture of the sampled sediments were determined. Next, direction of the dominant and erosive winds were determined by drawing wind and storm rose graphes and concentration of dust was calculated over a period. Results of sediment granulometry and hygrometry showed that more than 60% of the Maharloo Lake sediments were silt. Results of wind and storm roses showed that the direction of dominant wind is west and northwest; while the direction of erosive wind is western. According to the results of dust concentrations from two TSP and PM 2.5 samplers around the lake, it is derived that the amount of dust collected from the lake’s sediments is higher than normal. Also, based on the dominant wind direction, created dust would affect mostly villages around the lake and also, Sarvestan Township. Therefore, in regard to the percentage of particles frequency containing Maharloo Lake’s sediments and their high sensitivity to wind erosion, this challenge described in advanced will soon become apparent to other cities located in Fars province and even to other adjucent provinces.