There are over 70 types of mineral species in desert soils. Previous data have focused on major mineral contents and thus, the identification of minor mineral species is lacking. The diversity of minor mineral species was investigated in 19 surficial sediments from deserts in China and Mongolia. A modern scanning electron microscope (SEM)-based in-situ mineral mapping technique was used to determine the minor mineral species concentrations. For further analysis and interpretation, the identified species were grouped into felsic, mica, carbonate, heavy, rare earth, and salt-type minerals. The data in this article demonstrate that the concentrations of felsic, mica, and carbonate minerals are higher than those of the other mineral groups, and thus can be used to provide evidence of sediment provenance. The obtained mineral concentrations were converted from the relative area percentage for each mineral species using standard mineral density data. Mineral mapping was performed using the mineral liberation analysis platform, and on average, approximately 40,000 single particles per sample were analyzed to achieve an accurate quantification of the mineral concentrations. For each of the analyzed single particles, the particle shape parameters, such as particle length and width, were stored and can be used to trace the sediment transport process. For a deeper interpretation of the data presented herein, please see the related research article “Provenance of Fe in Chinese Deserts: Evidence from the geochemistry and mineralogy of soil particles” .
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