**Abstract**

Dune fields of the present day, the Dust Bowl disaster of the 1930s U.S. Great Plains, and contemporary efforts to forecast, simulate, and understand dust storms have a striking, uniform commonality. What these apparently diverse phenomena have in common is that they all result from blowing sand and dust. This review paper unifies these three disparate but related phenomena. Its over-arching goal is to clearly explain these manifestations of windblown sand and dust. First, for contemporary dune fields, we offer reviews of two technical papers that explain the eolian formation and the continuing development of two major dune fields in southeastern California and northwestern Sonora, Mexico: the Algodones Dunes and the Gran Desierto de Altar. Second, historical, geological, meteorological, and socioeconomic aspects of the 1930s Great Plains Dust Bowl are discussed. Third, and last, we return to the present day to summarize two lengthy reports on dust storms and to review two technical papers that concern their forecasting and simulation. The intent of this review is to acquaint the interested reader with how eolian transport of sand and dust affects the formation of present-day dune fields, human agricultural enterprises, and efforts to better forecast and simulate dust storms. Implications: Blowing sand and dust have drastically affected the geological landscape and continue to shape the formation of dune fields today. Nearly a century ago the U.S. Great Plains suffered through the Dust Bowl, yet another consequence of blowing sand and dust brought on by drought and mismanagement of agricultural lands. Today, this phenomenon adversely affects landscapes, transportation, and human respiratory health. A more complete understanding of this phenomenon could (and has) led to more effective mitigation of dust sources, as well as to a more accurate predictive system by which the public can be forewarned.

**Keywords:** Dune fields of today, Dust Bowl of the 1930s Great Plains, science of dust storm formation, forecasting and simulating dust storms

#### **1. Introduction**

This review paper attempts to unify a single phenomenon – blowing sand and dust – as it concerns dune field formation, the 1930s Dust Bowl of the Great Plains, and the science of dust storm formation. This unification is first brought to life (in this paper's first section) by the presence of active sand dune fields, which, in effect,

#### *Deserts and Desertification*

are repeating the same processes that led to sandstone formation, albeit in a nascent, formative manner. The second section of the paper continues with this theme of time as it portrays the 1930s Dust Bowl of the U.S. Great Plains. One of the papers summarized in this section relates the conditions of the Dust Bowl to a 1,000- year pageant of drought and moisture cycles in the western U.S. The third and last section of this review paper, grounded in the present day, first discusses two lengthy reports on dust storms, one of global extent with the other limited to Arizona. It then goes on to review contemporary efforts to understand, to monitor, and to forecast and simulate these dust storms. In sum, this review paper attempts to shed light on blowing sand and dust in prehistoric and historic time, and in the time of the present.

A cosmopolitan nuisance, blowing dust and sand affect virtually all semi-arid and arid landscapes [1], and has been doing so from deep geological time until the present day.

In their initial stage of formation, sand dunes depend on four related causes:


The geological approach to blowing sand and dust, given an introductory summary above, can be more fully investigated by the curious reader through visiting these sand dune fields and through attending courses in the subject at the community college or at the university level. Furthermore, geological textbooks are widely available and can be studied independently [5–8]. Visiting present-day sand dunes offers the curious individual the advantages of travel and exploration throughout much of North America [9]: from northwestern Sonora, Mexico, to the Oregon coast, through the Midwest, and east as far as Cape Cod. This paper presents geological analyses of two such dune fields.

In addition to this approach, a second way to understand blowing dust and sand relies on historical reviews of particularly dusty periods. Although there are many to choose from, one of the better documented and the more instructive took place in the 1930s in the Great Plains of the U.S. and is known as the "Dust Bowl" [10]. This review paper presents some historical and meteorological insights into this nightmare.

Last, the paper explores modern-day dust storm magnitudes and frequencies, as well as their meteorological and landscape causes [11]. The paper goes further into this subject by describing how weather forecasters predict these storms and how atmospheric scientists come to understand their formation, transport, and eventual dissipation, [12, 13].

To summarize, this paper offers a three-fold synthesis of the natural phenomenon of blowing sand and dust. First, in the present day, how can extant dune fields shed light on their formation? Second, what can we learn about dust storms from an historical/scientific review of one of the worst recorded of such episodes, i.e. the infamous Dust Bowl in the Great Plains of the U.S. in the 1930s? Third what are the physical bases of dust storm formation and how do communities of meteorologists and atmospheric physicists study dust storms with the goal of reducing their deleterious effects on the land, on the atmosphere, on transportation, and on the respiratory health of the public?

*Bowing Sand, Dust, and Dunes, Then and Now–A North American Perspective DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.98337*
