We collected Saharan dust at the Mauritanian coast as well as in the deep the North Atlantic Ocean, along a transect at 12 °N, using an array of moored sediment traps. We demonstrated that the lithogenic particles collected in the ocean are from the same source as dust collected on the African coast. With increasing distance from the source, lithogenic elements associated with clay minerals become more important relative to quartz which is settling out faster. Seasonality is prominent, but weak.