In this study, the authors selected Genggahai Lake, a hydrologically closed lake in the Gonghe Basin, for investigations of the spatial differentiation of modern clastic deposits in the lake in order to understand the process of aeolian activities in the lake region and the mechanism responsible for the input of detrital materials into the lake. The data indicate that the lake surface sediments show four patterns of grain size distribution that consists of two end-members (fine-and coarse-grained components) or a mixture of the two end-members with various relative proportions. Taking grain size distributions of suspended particulates trapped in the lake water and modern aeolian dust collected at Lenghu into account, the coarse-grained component of the lake sediments was most likely transported to the lake by winds and thus is sensitive to aeolian activities, i.e., occurrence of dust storms. The transportation of the fine-grained component of the lake sediments is not clear because fine particles deposited in the lake are complex in origin. More attention must be paid to the effect of changes in the lake level on grain size distribution of the surface sediments in the future studies in order to better constrain the implication of coarse particles in the core sediments.
