Abstract

To reconstruct wind-erosion events during the Pleistocene Epoch and their causes, we have relied until recently on geologic studies of the deposits resulting from wind erosion. In the last several decades, we have added increasingly detailed observations of meteorological and wind-erosion events from global networks of satellites and remote sensors. Regional- to global-scale computer models investigate both ancient and modern wind-erosion events and their causes. During the cold phases or glacials of the Pleistocene Epoch, wind erosion, as judged by reconstructions from dust in polar ice caps and in deep-sea sediments, may have been one order of magnitude or more greater than that of today.