Eventually, where does all the dust in the world go?

Question

Does it just get re-circulated? You clean your place and make your neighbour’s place dirty, and vice versa?

In: 1751

Answer 1

Most dust eventually turns into sediment, which (very) eventually will turn into rock. Sometimes, though, persistent winds deliver it to places where it just builds up. Where the dust has accumulated and not consolidated it’s called “loess”. I have friends with a place that’s in the [Palouse loess deposit](https://wa100.dnr.wa.gov/columbia-basin/loess). It develops a thin surface crust, but break through that and it’s just fluffy dust all the way down. The dust in their house is absolutely and positively mostly mineral.