The sandy soil also was thought to allow water to pass through the soil layers instead of running off. ECU faculty questioned those assumptions in the face of shallow, apparently truncated layers of soil and accumulated sediment in eastern rivers. Gares has continued the project, now in the fourth and final year. He presented his initial findings to the 1998 International Aeolian Conference in England. Four tropical storms in the first year of the project left Gares awash in data on water erosion.
Most sediment is carried off then, before the ground is saturated.
Most wind erosion occurs in February and March, generally dry, windy months when fields lie bare. Whether it is removed by water or wind, much of the eroded soil appears to remain on site, but not all. The rest is dust and flies higher. There's increasing evidence that the distribution of dust is worldwide. Dust settling on the East Coast of the United States has been tracked back to Africa, he said, and North Carolina top soil may be settling in England.