Abstract
To quantitatively estimate mass contribution of long-range transported yellow sand, their sources should be separated independently from various local soil sources having similar elemental compositions. While it is difficult to estimate total mass loadings of pure yellow sand by traditional bulk analysis, it can be clearly solved by an particle-by-particle analysis. To perform this study, two yellow sand samples and three local soil samples were collected by a mini-volume sampler. These samples were three analyzed using a scanning electron microscope(SEM) equipped with an energy dispersive x-ray analyser (EDX) was used to obtain basic chemical information of individual yellow san particles. A total of 19 elements in a single particle were measured to develop a source profile with newly created homogeneous particle classes (HPCs) as chemical variables. The present study showed that the yellow sand samples as well as three local soil samples were characterized with reasonably well created HPCs. Finally the mass fraction of each HPC in each sample was calculated and then compared each other.
