<p>Philip R. Christensen wrote an article back in 1986 called <em><a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/JB091iB03p03533" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Regional dust deposits on Mars: Physical properties, age, and history</a></em>. The abstract says</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Dust deposited during global storms is subsequently removed only from dark regions, resulting in a net accumulation in the low‐inertia, bright regions. The thickness of these current dust deposits is 0.1–2 m.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This rather rough approximate for <strong>global</strong> storms seems to be a upper boundary, because e.g. Bruce Cantor states in the abstract of the article <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2006.08.019" rel="nofollow noreferrer">MOC observations of the 2001 Mars planet-encircling dust storm</a></em>, the dust storms observed by the two rovers do deposit significantly less material (but can still cover solar cells):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The storm caused substantial regional albedo changes (darkening and brightening) as a result of the redistribution (removal and deposition) of a thin veneer of surface dust at least 0.1–11.1 μm thick.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>However, the abstract also says that local storm events might significantly redistribute material:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The redistribution of dust by large annual regional storms might help explain the long period (∼30 years) between the largest planet-encircling dust storms events.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Both articles are paywalled, so I could not dig deeper here, so let us explore a bit a <em>very</em> local phenomenon, namely the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_devil" rel="nofollow noreferrer">dust devil</a>. Dust devils have been frequently observed on Mars.</p>
<p>S.M. Metzger, Matt R. Balme <em>et al.</em> give an estimate of mass transport per dust devil in their article <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/191902572.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">In-Situ Measurements of Particle Load and Transport in Dust Devils</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We find that dust devils [...]  can  loft  about  1  kg  of  PM10  material  to  heights  of  several  hundred  meters over their lifetime. Furthermore, applying the 5-15% TSP/PM10 ratio to the TSP data  from  the  five  large  dust  devils  sampled  in  1996  suggests  that  larger  examples  can  deliver  up  to  20  kg  of  fine  particulates  to  great  height.</p>
</blockquote>
<h3>References</h3>
<ul>
<li>Hall and Lemmon: <a href="https://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2009/pdf/2409.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Mass eject from Martian dust devils as functionof height and devil morphology</a></li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-02-16T09:46:31.833Z
2021-04-07T09:58:10.223Z
2021-04-07T09:58:10.223Z
B--rian
<p>Is there any indication of how much dust is deposited, especially in areas that are not open where wind might produce a cleaning event?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-04-07T09:57:25.663Z
Did you see my answer? What are you missing? What should I edit in so that you could accept my answer?
B--rian
<observational-astronomy><mars><dust-storm>
How much is usually deposited in a Mars regional dust storm?
Bob516
# How much is usually deposited in a Mars regional dust storm?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-12-16)

Is there any indication of how much dust is deposited, especially in areas that are not open where wind might produce a cleaning event?

**Tags:** observational-astronomy, mars, dust-storm

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Did you see my answer? What are you missing? What should I edit in so that you could accept my answer?  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2021-02-16. Score: 3

Philip R. Christensen wrote an article back in 1986 called *[Regional dust deposits on Mars: Physical properties, age, and history](https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/JB091iB03p03533)*. The abstract says

> Dust deposited during global storms is subsequently removed only from dark regions, resulting in a net accumulation in the low‐inertia, bright regions. The thickness of these current dust deposits is 0.1–2 m.

This rather rough approximate for **global** storms seems to be a upper boundary, because e.g. Bruce Cantor states in the abstract of the article *[MOC observations of the 2001 Mars planet-encircling dust storm](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2006.08.019)*, the dust storms observed by the two rovers do deposit significantly less material (but can still cover solar cells):

> The storm caused substantial regional albedo changes (darkening and brightening) as a result of the redistribution (removal and deposition) of a thin veneer of surface dust at least 0.1–11.1 μm thick.

However, the abstract also says that local storm events might significantly redistribute material:

> The redistribution of dust by large annual regional storms might help explain the long period (∼30 years) between the largest planet-encircling dust storms events.

Both articles are paywalled, so I could not dig deeper here, so let us explore a bit a *very* local phenomenon, namely the [dust devil](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_devil). Dust devils have been frequently observed on Mars.

S.M. Metzger, Matt R. Balme *et al.* give an estimate of mass transport per dust devil in their article [In-Situ Measurements of Particle Load and Transport in Dust Devils](https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/191902572.pdf):

> We find that dust devils [...] can loft about 1 kg of PM10 material to heights of several hundred meters over their lifetime. Furthermore, applying the 5-15% TSP/PM10 ratio to the TSP data from the five large dust devils sampled in 1996 suggests that larger examples can deliver up to 20 kg of fine particulates to great height.

### References

* Hall and Lemmon: [Mass eject from Martian dust devils as functionof height and devil morphology](https://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2009/pdf/2409.pdf)


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