The Arid Central Asia is an important dust source in the northern hemisphere, which has a significant impact on the ecological environment of Central Asia and downwind the Northwest China and even the East Asian monsoon region. However, previous studies mainly relied on modern remote sensing and atmospheric observation data, and there were few studies on the dust sources of the desert, which limited the understanding of the sedimentation process in the area. 

The Kyzylkum Desert is one of the biggest deserts in Central Asia, meaning "red sand" in Turkic language, with an area of 300,000 m² and the eleventh largest desert in the world. It is located between the Syr Darya and Amu Darya rivers, the southern part of the Aral Sea, and is mainly located in Uzbekistan, adjacent to the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan and the Moinkum Desert in Kazakhstan, but the origin of the red sand is rarely studied. Studying the material sources and transport routes of the Kyzylkum Desert is essential for understanding the impact of Central Asian dust on global climate and environmental change.

The Loess and Climate Change Research Team of the Institute of Earth Environment of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, cooperated with Uzbek scientists, collected topsoil samples from the desert in Uzbekistan, the two river basins (Syr Darya and Amu Darya) and the piedmont area of West Tianshan Mountains. Based on laser ablation multiple-receiver plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) analyses of the U-Pb dating of detrital zircon, 1278 groups of age data were obtained. 

Combined with the previously published data of the potential source area, a mixing model of the Kyzylkum Desert was established by multiple regression analysis. The researchers found that the main source of the Kyzylkum Desert is the Southwest Tianshan, and the river system dominated by the Syr Darya River (including the Amu Darya River and the Zeravshan River) is the main transportation channel for these materials. Besides, the dust of the Kyzylkum Desert can be transported to the piedmont area by wind, and the transport and deposition process is mainly controlled by topography. 

This study provides important evidence for understanding the origin and transport process of dust materials in the Kyzylkum Desert, which is of great significance for the study on the paleoenvironmental changes and geomorphological evolution processes in Central Asia. 

This work published in Geophysical Research Letters, was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research (STEP) program, the State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, and the International Partnership Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Contact: BAI Jie, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an, China. Email: baijie@ieecas.cn