Two questions about the DUST BOWL period in America...?

Question

Having always heard about this phenomena_to me that's what it is_and very briefly reading about it in Wikipedia right now, two main questions come to mind?:

Did those places (or some of them) ever returned to normal, healthy terrain? And, what was the consequence, healthwise, to so much being buried in so much dust? Plus the dust storms, which must have made this something otherwordly to the ones who'd never experienced it before?

Answer 1

The "dust" of the Dust Bowl was electrostaticly charged so it would pile up in drifts like "powder" snow and easily start to blow again. Fortunatly the piles of dust quickly collapsed once the grains lost their charge.

This was the result of using plows that left the surface too smooth and pulverized and no crop residue. (the plow was called a "one-way" because you could only turn one way [left] with it. There are still many areas where from an airplane you can see the pattern left by the one-way.)

Then when the drought came it started to blow and there was nothing to stop it.

Once we switched to better types of plowing -- or even quit plowing -- the ground quit blowing as badly.

There was a worse dry spell years later but because of improved cultivation there was no repeat of the Dust Bowl.

And yes, the ground has returned to crop production. There are areas where there are many small hills supposed to be the left-overs of those dark days.

Yes they are bad. I grew up on a farm in the Texas Panhandle and there were some isolated dust storms when I was young. We've lost fields of young wheat to the dust -- blasted by the dust and zapped by the electrostatic charge until it shriveled.

I've driven down the highway at 20 mph or so, unable to see headlights of other cars, only able to steer by watching the white stripes out the driver's side window.

The worst part to a farmer is the helplessness. Nothing you can do but wait it out and then figure what to do next.

Answer 2

Well, today farmers farm much of the acreage that was devastated during the dust bowl years, so it must have been restored to health. These were no ordinary dust storms. Some of them were truly horrific.

Here is a link to one photo of a dust storm from that time period.

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ReleaseImages/20040318/01_theb1365.jpg

Answer 3

I've read about the dust bowl period before, it was just that alot of farmers lost alot of profit because their crops were ruined..

Answer 4

MANY OF THEM RETURNED TO NORMAL ONCE THE DROUGHT ENDED. THERE WAS PROBABLY NO LONG TERM HEALTH PROBLEM EXCEPT FOR THOSE WHO HAD A LUNG PROBLEM.