The problem of soil erosion during the dust bowl of 1930s

Geographic characteristics and early history A dust storm approaches Stratford, Texasin The Dust Bowl area lies principally west of the th meridian on the High Plainscharacterized by plains which vary from rolling in the north to flat in the Llano Estacado.

Geographic characteristics and early history A dust storm approaches Stratford, Texasin The Dust Bowl area lies principally west of the th meridian on the High Plainscharacterized by plains which vary from rolling in the north to flat in the Llano Estacado.

The region is also prone to extended drought, alternating with unusual wetness of equivalent duration. The region is also subject to high winds. The lack of surface water and timber made the region less attractive than other areas for pioneer settlement and agriculture.

With the end of the Civil War in and the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad inwaves of new migrants and immigrants reached the Great Plains, and they greatly increased the acreage under cultivation.

Waves of European settlers arrived in the plains at the beginning of the 20th century. A return of unusually wet weather seemingly confirmed a previously held opinion that the "formerly" semiarid area could support large-scale agriculture.

At the same time, technological improvements such as mechanized plowing and mechanized harvesting made it possible to operate larger properties without increasing labor costs.

The combined effects of the disruption of the Russian Revolutionwhich decreased the supply of wheat and other commodity crops, and World War I increased agricultural prices; this demand encouraged farmers to dramatically increase cultivation.

For example, in the Llano Estacado of eastern New Mexico and northwestern Texasthe area of farmland was doubled between andthen tripled again between and Furthermore, cotton farmers left fields bare during winter months, when winds in the High Plains are highest, and burned the stubble as a means to control weeds prior to planting, thereby depriving the soil of organic nutrients and surface vegetation.

After fairly favourable climatic conditions in the s with good rainfall and relatively moderate winters, [13] which permitted increased settlement and cultivation in the Great Plains, the region entered an unusually dry era in the summer of The drought dried the topsoil and over time it became friable, reduced to a powdery consistency in some places.

Without the indigenous grasses in place, the high winds that occur on the plains picked up the topsoil and created the massive dust storms that marked the Dust Bowl period. The fine soil of the Great Plains was easily eroded and carried east by strong continental winds.

On November 11,a very strong dust storm stripped topsoil from desiccated South Dakota farmlands in just one of a series of severe dust storms that year. Beginning on May 9,a strong, two-day dust storm removed massive amounts of Great Plains topsoil in one of the worst such storms of the Dust Bowl.

On April 14,known as " Black Sunday ", 20 of the worst "black blizzards" occurred across the entire sweep of the Great Plains, from Canada south to Texas.

The dust storms caused extensive damage and turned the day to night; witnesses reported that they could not see five feet in front of them at certain points. Denver-based Associated Press reporter Robert E. Geiger happened to be in Boise City, Oklahoma that day. On rare occasions when the wind did subside for a period of hours, the air has been so filled with dust that the town appeared to be overhung by a fog cloud.

Because of this long seige of dust and every building being filled with it, the air has become stifling to breathe and many people have developed sore throats and dust colds as a result.

Ina Kansas agricultural experiment station released a bulletin that suggested reestablishing native grasses by the "hay method". Developed in to speed up the process and increase returns from pasture, the "hay method" was originally supposed to occur in Kansas naturally over 25—40 years.

Specifically, Atlantic Ocean sea surface temperatures appear to have had an indirect effect on the general atmospheric circulation, while Pacific sea surface temperatures seem to have had the most direct influence.

United States Buried machinery in a barn lot; Dallas, South DakotaMay Inmany families were forced to leave their farms and travel to other areas seeking work because of the drought which at that time had already lasted four years.

More thanAmericans were left homeless. Over houses had to be torn down after one storm alone. Parents packed up " jalopies " with their families and a few personal belongings, and headed west in search of work. The Dust Bowl exodus was the largest migration in American history within a short period of time.

Between andapproximately 3. This number is more than the number of migrants to that area during the Gold Rush. So many families left their farms and were on the move that the proportion between migrants and residents was nearly equal in the Great Plains states.

Gregory examined Census Bureau statistics and other records to learn more about the migrants. Based on a survey of occupation by the Bureau of Agricultural Economics of aboutfamilies who arrived in California in the s, he learned that only 43 percent of southwesterners were doing farm work immediately before they migrated.

Nearly one-third of all migrants were professional or white-collar workers. After the Great Depression ended, some moved back to their original states. Many others remained where they had resettled.dust bowl • n. an area of land where vegetation has been lost and soil reduced to dust and eroded, esp.

Erosion | Dr. Dirt

as a consequence of drought or unsuitable farming practice. ∎ (the Dust Bowl) an area of Oklahoma, Kansas, and northern Texas affected by severe soil erosion (caused by windstorms) in the early s, which obliged many people to move.

During the s, the farming of marginal lands in the Great Plains, combined with a prolonged drought, culminated in dust storms and soil destruction of disastrous proportions. Most of the erosion that took place during the "Dust Bowl" years of the s in the Great Plains of North America was the result of which of the following processes?

Breadcrumb

wind In the desert environment, how are ventifacts created? Economic depression coupled with extended drought, unusually high temperatures, poor agricultural practices and the resulting wind erosion all contributed to making the Dust Bowl.

­The seeds of the Dust Bowl may have been sowed during the early s. The Dust Bowl was the name given to an area of the Great Plains (southwestern Kansas, Oklahoma panhandle, Texas panhandle, northeastern New Mexico, and southeastern Colorado) that was devastated by nearly a decade of drought and soil erosion during the s.

The Dust Bowl was the name given to an area of the Great Plains (southwestern Kansas, Oklahoma panhandle, Texas panhandle, northeastern New Mexico, and southeastern Colorado) that was devastated by nearly a decade of drought and soil erosion during the s.