Smoke from Australia 'could reach South America'

EVANSTON, Ill. --- As thick plumes of smoke from Australia's massive wildfires travel around the Earth, Northwestern University's Neal Blair has offered comments on where smoke particles might eventually settle.

Blair is a professor environmental engineering in the McCormick School of Engineering and a professor of Earth and planetary sciences in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. He is an expert on the carbon cycle and greenhouse gases.

Quote from Professor Blair:

"In short, what doesn’t deposit on land surfaces in Australia and New Zealand (and other islands downwind), will go into the ocean. There is a small chance that some extremely fine-grained material from fires of this duration and intensity could reach South America. In inhabited areas, the smoke will be a health hazard. In the ocean, it is conceivable that the settling particles could have a fertilizer effect due to the trace metals, nitrogen and phosphorous that might be contained in them."