Eastern Australia: A possible source of dust in East Antarctica interglacial ice

Earth and Planetary Science Letters 249 (2006) 1 – 13 www.elsevier.com/locate/epsl

Eastern Australia: A possible source of dust in East Antarctica interglacial ice M. Revel-Rolland a,b,⁎, P. De Deckker c , B. Delmonte d , P.P. Hesse e , J.W. Magee c , I. Basile-Doelsch f , F. Grousset g , D. Bosch h a

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Geosciences Azur, Observatoire Océanologique, La Darse, B.P. 48 06235 Villefranche/mer, France b LGCA, Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Grenoble, Université Joseph Fourier, France c Department of Earth and Marine Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Ambiente e del Territorio, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza, 120126 Milano, Italy e Department of Physical Geography, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia f CEREGE Université Aix-Marseille/CNRS/IRD UR161, BP 80, 13545 Aix-en Provence, France g EPOC, Université de Bordeaux I, Avenue des Facultés, 33405 Talence, France h Laboratoire de Tectonophysique, Université de Montpellier II, 34095 Montpellier, France Received 17 December 2005; received in revised form 13 June 2006; accepted 16 June 2006 Available online 9 August 2006 Editor: H. Elderfield

Abstract The Australian continent is characterised by an extremely variable surficial geochemistry, reflecting the varied lithology of Australian basement rocks. Samples representative of Australian aeolian dust have been collected in (1) regions where meteorological records, satellite observation and wind erosion modelling systems have indicated frequent dust activity today (mainly the Lake Eyre Basin), and (2) from deposits of mixed dust materials. The 87Sr/86Sr and 143Nd/144Nd isotopic composition of the fine (