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Mineral dust particles are entrained into the atmosphere by deflation of surface material from arid-semiarid areas. The amount of this mineral material is controlled by environmental and climatic factors. Nowadays, the global annual input of mineral aerosols to the atmosphere is estimated at 1-2 billion t/yr. Dust loadings may affect global radiation budget, biogeochemical cycles, CO2 level, cloud formation and human health. In some periods in the history of Earth, global dust emission, the size and frequency of the dust storms was several orders of magnitude higher than today. The aeolian dust deposits (e. g. loess-palaeosol successions, marine sediments, dust samples of ice cores, etc.) which accumulated in these dusty intervals are excellent archives of palaeoclimatic and palaeo-environmental variation. The possible role dust may have played in Pleistocene climatic changes is another area of active research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]