Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Sandstorms


What is a Sandstorm:

     Sandstorms (also known as Dust storms) is when high winds touches and picks up loose sand or soil and moves it throughout the air causing poor visibility and sometime even blackout conditions.1  Within such storms the sand can cause large amounts of damage including covering agriculture creating famine, death to livestock and people if exposed in a storm and damage to property such as transportation vehicles. 




 
 
Masks are important if caught outside during a sandstorm to help prevent breathing in sand particles.
 
 

 
How are Sandstorms Formed:

     Sandstorms usually take place in dry hot places and are more likely to occur during the summer.  This is because there is a high level of heating within the air over barren landscapes such as deserts that cause the lower atmosphere to become unstable.  With the atmosphere being unstable causes a mixture of strong winds in the middle troposphere to move downward to the surface.  In a result produces strong winds that lower to the surface.2   In deserts in dry hot climates like in Afghanistan creates a higher possibility for sandstorms to take place. 




 

Sandstorms Affecting Afghanistan People:
    

 
     Sandstorms are a major threat to the people of Afghanistan with the possibility of destroying crops, contaminating water supplies and the potential of destroying homes.  In 2003, more than 12,000 people 57 villages which were seriously affected by sandstorms which were recorded by the United Nations.3  In one of the more sever sandstorms “up to 20 villages had to be evacuated because they were covered in sand which was banked up against the walls of homes and compounds.”4 Sandstorms such as these would not only create displaced families but they will also have to rely on a limited amount of water and food supply’s that were not affected. 
 
3.http://www.irinnews.org/Report/20553/AFGHANISTAN-Sandstorms-affect-over-ten-thousand-people
4.http://www.irinnews.org/Report/20553/AFGHANISTAN-Sandstorms-affect-over-ten-thousand-people
 
 

 
Work Cited:
1.http://www.weatherquestions.com/What_causes_sandstorms.htm
2.http://www.weatherquestions.com/What_causes_sandstorms.htm
3.http://www.irinnews.org/Report/20553/AFGHANISTAN-Sandstorms-affect-over-ten-thousand-people
4.http://www.irinnews.org/Report/20553/AFGHANISTAN-Sandstorms-affect-over-ten-thousand-people

Image Source:
 
1.https://plus.google.com/photos/110851263651500394524/albums/5838707893829761569/5867997542086214962
2.http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/06/al-qaida-afghanistan-peter-bergen-review
3.http://www.weatherquestions.com/What_causes_sandstorms.htm
4.http://op-for.com/2009/07/the_wolfpack_3d_lar_in_iraq.html
6.https://plus.google.com/photos/110851263651500394524/albums/5838707893829761569/5868038530524804354

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