Abstract

Mineral dust aerosols are pivotal components of Earth's atmosphere and significantly influence the climate system. Investigating their impacts through ice core records offers unique insights into paleoclimate dynamics. Various techniques, including direct and indirect measurements of concentrations and size distributions, unravel the complex story of dust provenance, transport, and deposition. Dust records correlate with temperature reconstructions, reflecting the interconnectedness of climatic processes. Enhanced characterization methods promise a deeper understanding of the role of dust in the Earth's history. The current state of knowledge on paleoclimatic mineral dust in ice cores is reviewed, including its measurement, hemispheric differences, and climatic interpretation. © 2025 Elsevier B.V. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.