Dust Bowl

Sarah Margaret Cimino

1. Farmers plowed deep into the virgin topsoil of the Great Plains displacing the natural grasses. 
2. The native grasses of the Plains were deep-rooted and kept the high winds from blowing away soil. They also trapped moisture.
3. cotton farmers left fields bare during the winter or burned what was left in the field to control weeds
4. In the study, cooler than normal tropical Pacific Ocean temperatures and warmer than normal tropical Atlantic Ocean temperatures created ideal drought conditions due to the unstable sea surface temperatures which resulted in dry air and high temperatures in the Midwest during the 1930s
5.  In the 1930's, the jet stream was weakened causing the air from the Gulf of Mexico to become drier.
6. But plow-based farming in this re­gion cultivated an unexpected yield: the loss of fertile topsoil that literally blew away in the winds
7.  Years of over-cultivation meant there was no longer protection from the elements. 
8. When the drought killed off the crops, high winds blew the remaining topsoil away.
9. The farmers destroyed the nutrients in the soil
10. There was a lack lack of understanding of the environment.

Questions:

Could the dust bowl happen again?

Why was there a lack of understanding?