Australian dust storm could be weeks away Updated Sat Sep 25, 2010 6:41am AEST An earth scientist says another major dust storm over south-eastern Australia is likely within weeks.
The Australian National University's Professor Patrick De Deckker is studying the last decade of storms, which have carried millions of tonnes of dust across the nation. Professor De Deckker says he expects another major storm will develop after the flooded inland of Australia dries during spring. "You had major floods in Central Australia and I think in the near future, when the material that covers the landscape - especially the lake floors and river banks - when that dries up, the wind will pick it up and lift some of the material to our eastern seashores," he said. "So it is likely to be this spring, but more likely in early autumn." Professor De Deckker has also developed what he describes is a "fingerprinting" technique to identify the composition and origin of dust. He says the technique reveals the origin, cause and impacts of severe events such as the last major storm over Sydney and Canberra in September last year. "What we have discovered is that when you have a major dust storm and you have a front carrying a lot of dust, it may start in a particular area - let's say Lake Eyre - it will pick up additional dust on its way. So the composition of the dust storm will change," he said. "The other thing that we have found is that rain does carry quite a lot, or drop a lot of dust." His team is continuing to test for pathogens in samples collected from the previous storms. Australia is the largest source of airborne dust in the southern hemisphere. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/09/25/3021791.htm?site=news ******************************************************************************** This email, including any attachments sent with it, is confidential and for the sole use of the intended recipient(s). This confidentiality is not waived or lost, if you receive it and you are not the intended recipient(s), or if it is transmitted/received in error. Any unauthorised use, alteration, disclosure, distribution or review of this email is strictly prohibited. The information contained in this email, including any attachment sent with it, may be subject to a statutory duty of confidentiality if it relates to health service matters. If you are not the intended recipient(s), or if you have received this email in error, you are asked to immediately notify the sender by telephone collect on Australia +61 1800 198 175 or by return email. You should also delete this email, and any copies, from your computer system network and destroy any hard copies produced. If not an intended recipient of this email, you must not copy, distribute or take any action(s) that relies on it; any form of disclosure, modification, distribution and/or publication of this email is also prohibited. Although Queensland Health takes all reasonable steps to ensure this email does not contain malicious software, Queensland Health does not accept responsibility for the consequences if any person's computer inadvertently suffers any disruption to services, loss of information, harm or is infected with a virus, other malicious computer programme or code that may occur as a consequence of receiving this email. Unless stated otherwise, this email represents only the views of the sender and not the views of the Queensland Government. **********************************************************************************
