The Dust Bowl

Abstract

The Dust Bowl of the 1930s was one of the worst environmental crises to strike twentieth century North America. Severe drought and wind erosion ravaged the Great Plains for a decade. Yet there were comparable droughts in the 1950s and 1970s with no comparable degree of erosion. The mystery of the huge contrast between the 1930s and later droughts now appears to be solved (Hansen and Libecap 2004).