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America's worst man-made environmental disasters: Dust Bowl
America's 10 worst man-made environmental disasters
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Judywatch
May 07 2011 at 10:12 AM
The Dust Bowl, or the Dirty Thirties, was a period of severe dust storms
causing major ecological and agricultural damage to American and Canadian
prairie lands from 1930 to 1936 (in some areas until 1940). The phenomenon was
caused by severe drought coupled with decades of extensive farming without crop
rotation, fallow fields, cover crops or other techniques to prevent erosion.Deep
plowing of the virgin topsoil of the Great Plains had displaced the natural
deep-rooted grasses that normally kept
.... More
the soil in place and trapped moisture
even during periods of drought and high winds.
HUBLOT MDM MOP ROSE GOLD DIAMOND QUARTZ CHRONO REPLICA
Dust Bowl
Extensive farming combined with severe drought caused the Dust Bowl in the 1930s. Deep plowing on the Great Plains killed the natural grasses that kept soil in place, and the topsoil turned to dust and blew away. Tons of soil were blown off barren fields and carried in storm clouds for hundreds of miles, creating one of the most disastrous ecological events in U.S. history.
Between 1930 and 1940, severe dust storms, or “black blizzards,” reached heights of 10,000 feet, blowing cars off the road and blocking out sunlight. At times, the clouds blackened the sky all the way to New York City, and much of the topsoil was deposited in the Atlantic Ocean. An estimated 2.5 million people were displaced and millions of acres of farmland became useless, intensifying the economic impact of the Great Depression.
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