dustbowls
Drought-ravaged farming regions
Dustbowls is the plural of dustbowl, a region where drought and poor farming practices have stripped topsoil, leaving dry, wind-eroded land.
The term comes from the Dust Bowl of the 1930s American Great Plains, when massive dust storms displaced thousands of families.
Figuratively, any barren or neglected area: The abandoned lots had become urban dustbowls.
1930s global economic crisis
- 1930sFourth decade, twentieth century
- OklahomaSouth Central U.S. state
- OkiesDust Bowl refugees, informally
- migrationMovement to new territory
Steinbeck · Grapes of Wrath · Great Plains · Kansas · Texas Panhandle · drought · Black Sunday · Route 66
Gradual wearing away
- desertificationLand becoming barren, infertile
- topsoilNutrient-rich surface earth
- droughtProlonged water scarcity
- overgrazingExcessive pasture consumption
deforestation · aridity · windstorms · barren · fallow · soil depletion · monoculture · overfarming
Great Depression
1930s global economic crisis
- 1930sFourth decade, twentieth century
- OklahomaSouth Central U.S. state
- OkiesDust Bowl refugees, informally
migration · Steinbeck · Grapes of Wrath · Great Plains · Kansas · Texas Panhandle · drought · Black Sunday · Route 66 · California
erosion
Gradual wearing away
- desertificationLand becoming barren, infertile
- topsoilNutrient-rich surface earth
- droughtProlonged water scarcity
overgrazing · deforestation · aridity · windstorms · barren · fallow · soil depletion · monoculture · overfarming · sandstorms
arid
Devoid of water
steppes · badlands · wasteland · desolate · parched · scrubland · semi-arid · continental · windswept · treeless
dustbowlsfertile plains
Productive flat agricultural land
breadbaskets · farmland · cropland · arable land · granaries
dustbowlswetlands
Water-saturated terrain
swamps · marshes · floodplains · rainforests · bogs
dustbowlsoases
Water sources in arid lands
gardens · Edens · paradise · lush landscapes · green belts