# Dust Bowl Days Question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 16, 2018, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dust-bowl-days-question/816222 "2018-06-16T21:30:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2018, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dust-bowl-days-question/816222/1 "2018-06-16T21:30:23Z")
It’s probably unanswerable, but anyway :)…during the dust bowl days a lot of topsoil blew away. Does top soil lose any of its nutritional value by dint of having been dehydrated and powderized, and if not, did any areas of the country gain richer soil where the dust finally fetched up? ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2018, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dust-bowl-days-question/816222/2 "2018-06-17T11:38:42Z")
Significant deposits are called [Loess](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loess#Fertility) which can be quite fertile and productive. It depends, in part where it lands. E.g., any that got to the Mississippi River valley wasn’t probably better than the soil already there. Also, it depends on volume, volume, volume. Sorry- amount added. It probably wasn’t enough to make a big difference after plowing in most areas. The great Loess deposits take thousands of years to form. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2018, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dust-bowl-days-question/816222/3 "2018-06-17T12:45:32Z")
I’m going to speculate here … so TIFWIW … I’m not sure “a lot of topsoil blew away” is quite right … some did but just as far as the next county, only a few dust storms made it to the Atlantic seaboard … the great human tragedy here was the drought and these effects were amplified by the tilling practices of the day … if you ask my mother she’ll tell you every goddam flake of dust wound up _ **in her home** _ … haha, them prairie-born girls are a riot … ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2018, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dust-bowl-days-question/816222/4 "2018-06-17T13:03:13Z")
As indicated by **ftg** The dust storm which hit SE Australia on 22nd Sep 2009 [Dust storm chokes Sydney - ABC News](http://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-09-23/dust-storm-chokes-sydney/1438510) has been linked to an algal bloom in the Tasman Sea. [CSIRO PUBLISHING | Marine and Freshwater Research](http://www.publish.csiro.au/mf/MF14321) ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2018, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dust-bowl-days-question/816222/5 "2018-06-17T13:13:36Z")
Soil isn’t just nutrients, there are also good microbes in there. So the dust is so dry its probably short of microbes. But the microbes due blow in the wind with the dust. so they might help create soil too. Soil off basalt, granite and igneous rock is generally nutritious… So if its light enough to be dust , its generally good. Where sahara, Chad mostly, dust ends up… > **[Explainer: what dust from the Sahara does to you and the planet](https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-dust-from-the-sahara-does-to-you-and-the-planet-57373)** > > How the dustiest place on Earth fuels the biodiversity of the Amazon and causes mud rain in Europe. Its said to be crucial for the Amazon, which is generally washed out of nutrients, and the mountains there don’t provide enough. ---
**Author:** ![Kedikat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed655f/32.png) [@Kedikat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kedikat)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2018, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dust-bowl-days-question/816222/6 "2018-06-18T03:11:13Z")
Never mind. Isilder mostly said what I was going to. ---
**Author:** ![anomalous1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e56c9b/32.png) [@anomalous1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anomalous1)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2018, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dust-bowl-days-question/816222/7 "2018-06-18T08:45:28Z")
Can’t grow anything, can’t eat dirt… bring on the breast milk. ---
**Author:** ![sitchensis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sitchensis/32/4892_2.png) [@sitchensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sitchensis)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2018, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dust-bowl-days-question/816222/8 "2018-06-19T03:31:07Z")
If I remember right, the fertile rolling hills of the palouse in eastern Washington are from soil that was deposited when the Lake Missoula floods encountered the Cascades and the water slowed down enough for the soil to fall out. The westerly winds then piled up the soil into the rolling hills we have today.