The Dust Bowl

The Dust Bowl was an environmental catastrophe, a natural hazard (multiannual drought) in the 1930s in the Southern Great Plains of the USA, resulting in the activation of a geomorphic process (intense wind erosion) which, when human society could not adapt to it, cascaded into unprecedented agricultural, economic, and societal collapse in its core region. Over the years, the cause of the Dust Bowl has been variably ascribed to specific climatic or meteorological phenomena or land management practices. Drought and wind erosion have been notable phenomena in the Southern Great Plains throughout the Holocene, occurring long before conversion of the land to agricultural use, and still continue today. (Gill and Lee 2006)



Further Readings

Dust Bowl http://www.eoearth.org/article/Dust_Bowl

The Dust Bowl http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1583.html

On the cause of the 1930s Dust Bowl. Science 2004 http://www.sciencemag.org/content/303/5665/1855.abstract

NASA explains the Dust Bowl Drought http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2004/0319dustbowl.html

A critical evlauation of the Dust Bowl and its causes. Gill and Lee. 2006
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2006AGUFM.A44C..06G

What America Looked Like: The Dust Bowl (2012 in The Atlantic. lots of good photos)
http://m.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/02/what-america-looked-like-the-dust-bowl/253220/#slide3

Misery on a Grand Scale: The Drought of today and Yesteryear. Wynan Meinzer is a photographer who teachers photography at Tech. He teaches Wildlife Photography at Junction during Intersession which would be a great experience for all budding photographers.
http://www.wymanmeinzer.com/misery-on-a-grand-scale-the-drought-of-today-and-yesteryear/

Video

Surviving the Dust Bowl. PBS
http://video.pbs.org/video/1311363860/