Dust storm facts for kids
A dust storm, or sandstorm, is a storm of small particles of sand and dirt. Dust storms happen when a strong wind front blows loose sand and dust from a dry surface. Particles are picked up and suspended in the air, causing soil erosion where they were. The wind drops them in another place where they can form silt.
Dust storms can reach wind speeds of 25 miles per hour (40 kmh).
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Causes
As the force of wind passing over dirt increases, particles of sand first start to vibrate, then to saltate ("leaps"). As they repeatedly strike the ground, they loosen and break off smaller particles of dust which then begin to travel in suspension. At wind speeds above that which causes the smallest to suspend, there will be a population of dust grains moving by a range of mechanisms: suspension, saltation and creep.
Particles become loosely held mainly due to drought or arid conditions, and varied wind causes.
Sometimes dust (but not sand) may be lifted as high as 20,000 feet (6,100 m) high.
Drought and wind contribute to dust storms, as do poor farming and grazing practices by exposing the dust and sand to the wind.
Physical and environmental effects
A sandstorm can transport and carry large volumes of sand unexpectedly. Dust storms can carry large amounts of dust, with the leading edge being composed of a wall of thick dust as much as 1.6 km (0.99 mi) high.
Dust and sand storms which come off the Sahara Desert are locally known as a simoom or simoon (sîmūm, sîmūn). The haboob (həbūb) is a sandstorm prevalent in the region of Sudan around Khartoum, with occurrences being most common in the summer.
The Sahara desert is a key source of dust storms, particularly the Bodélé Depression and an area covering the confluence of Mauritania, Mali, and Algeria.
Dust storms have also been shown to increase the spread of disease across the globe. Virus spores in the ground are blown into the atmosphere by the storms with the minute particles and interact with urban air pollution.
Economic impact
Dust storms cause soil loss from the dry lands, and worse, they preferentially remove organic matter and the nutrient-rich lightest particles, thereby reducing agricultural productivity. Also the abrasive effect of the storm damages young crop plants. Dust storms also reduced visibility affecting aircraft and road transportation. In addition dust storms also create problems due to complications of breathing in dust.
Extraterrestrial dust storms
Dust storms are not limited to Earth and have been known to form on other planets such as Mars. These dust storms can extend over larger areas than those on Earth, sometimes encircling the planet, with wind speeds as high as 60 miles per hour (97 km/h). However, given Mars' much lower atmospheric pressure (roughly 1% that of Earth's), the intensity of Mars' storms could never reach the kind of hurricane-force winds experienced on Earth. Martian dust storms are formed when solar heating warms the Martian atmosphere and causes the air to move, lifting dust off the ground. The chance for storms is increased when there are great temperature variations like those seen at the equator during the Martian summer.
Images for kids
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Seen from above, a sandstorm might not look as strong as it really is. Namib Desert (2017) 25°20′07″S 016°03′05″E / 25.33528°S 16.05139°E
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Dust storm in Sahara, painted by George Francis Lyon
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Sydney shrouded in dust during the 2009 Australian dust storm.
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Dust storm approaching Stratford, Texas, 1935
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A moment of a sandstorm at Bauchi-Gombe Expressway, Akko, Gombe State
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Dust storm in Taklimakan Desert, Western China
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Dust storm (haboob) arriving ahead of a cold front, October 11, 2020, Cimarron County, Oklahoma, USA
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Dust storm clouds rolling into Phoenix on July 5, 2011, reducing visibility to zero. A mile-high wall of dust and sand was created by desert thunderstorms.
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A massive dust storm cloud (haboob) is close to enveloping a military camp as it rolls over Al Asad, Iraq, just before nightfall on April 27, 2005.
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Dust Storm in the Black Rock Desert
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Wind raising a massive cloud of the Sahara desert dust.
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Dust storm, Kansas
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A man in a sandstorm
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Sand storm that passed over Midland, Texas, February 20, 1894 at 6:00 p.m. Windmills and houses visible just below the whirling sand.
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See also
In Spanish: Tormenta de polvo para niños
