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Precipitation was collected for a 1‐year period in Miami, Florida. The deposition rate of Al in samples containing Saharan dust was 10.1 μg/cm 2 , this flux is equivalent to a mineral deposition rate of 126 μg/cm 2 per year, a value comparable to the mineral accumulation rate in sediments of the tropical North Atlantic. Mineral deposition rates in rain were highly variable, with 22% of the total occurring in 1 day and 68% occurring in 4 days in two separate dust episodes. The volume‐weighted average concentration of dissolved Al in dust‐related rain events was 9.8 μg/L; if normalized to the total volume of rain that fell that year, the average would have a minimum value of 3.0 μg/L. The dissolved Al fraction (defined as all Al that passes through a 0.45‐μm filter) ranged from 0.5 to 48%, with a volume‐weighted mean of 5%; solubility tended to increase with decreasing rain pH and decreasing mineral concentration. If the 5% solubility applies to all Saharan dust deposited in the tropical Atlantic, then the annual deposition rate of soluble Al in this region would be 2–8×10 11 g, a rate commensurate with that carried by the Amazon; on a global basis the annual input to the oceans of soluble Al in dust would be 20–40×10 11 g, a rate comparable to that carried by rivers. These atmospheric input rates of dissolved Al are sufficient to account for many of the distribution features of Al in the oceans.
Prospero et al. (Sun,) studied this question.