The emergence of desiccated lakebed sediments and their exposure to wind erosion as a consequence of climate change and drought in arid and semiarid regions of the world poses a growing hazard. Airborne dust originating from such soils can create health and environmental issues due to their high salt content and the presence of toxic elements. The aim of the present study is twofold, namely to investigate the newly emerged playa surfaces of the western Lake Urmia (LU) in Iran and their contribution to aerosol in the region by means of physicochemical, mineralogical and elemental analyses, and to study the ice nucleation (IN) activity of both surface-collected soil and airborne dust samples. The playa surfaces created by desiccation of LU on the west shores were mapped and sampled at 130 locations. Soil samples were subjected to physicochemical analyses and their erodible fraction was determined. Based on these analyses, four highly erodible playa surfaces from northwest to the south of LU were selected as sites for collection of dust by impaction and soil samples from the uppermost surface. Their particle physicochemical properties (size distribution, elemental and mineralogical composition) were compared with their IN activity determined by emulsion freezing experiments in a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) in two suspension concentrations of 2 wt % and 5 wt %. The physicochemical soil properties differed significantly between the different playa surfaces, which affects their susceptibility to wind erosion. Sand sheets and sandy salt crusts were the most erodible playa surfaces due to their high sand fraction, low organic matter and clay content, favoring the presence of small aggregates. Mineralogical analyses document the prevalence of quartz, carbonates and clay minerals such as kaolinite, palygorskite and chlorite in all of the samples. The predominant elements in the samples are Ca, Fe, Al, Si and Na and in some cases Ba, Sr and Zn. The correlation betw
