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Oklahoma Dustbowl calc
- Thread starter Udlmaster
- Start date
- 6,196
- 3,065
Like, for the total energy released?
- 6,196
- 3,065
This would be tricky and I'm no expert, but I think gathering the average kinetic energy of a dust storm (the method of which is debateable), and then multiplying it to the number of dust bowl incidents would be the way to go. From a cursory Google Search, there seemed to be 75 storms within the time period of the Dust Bowl
- 6,196
- 3,065
There isn't much scientific study, but if we were to establish the baseline "average" KE of a dust storm, we could just multiply it by the number of dust storm incidents throughout the Dust Bowl. The issue is that there's not much research on it.
Another way is to measure the total KE of topsoil displaced throughout the Dust Bowl and multiply it by the velocity of the average dust storm winds for a rough KE. There isn't much data on the total amount of topsoil displaced, but Britannica cites that about 1.1 billion tons of topsoil were displaced from the Great Plains 1934 to 1935, the most severe year of the drought
Pair this with the fact that dust storms rise when wind speeds exceed 13 mph or 20.92 kph
Would come around to a few kilotons of tnt in Town level but this only accounts for the energy the storm exerts rather than the energy needed to generate it, which I'm admittedly not learned in. Also this only talks about topsoil in specific areas in a specific timeframe, so it was likely higher than what I'm positing.
Another way is to measure the total KE of topsoil displaced throughout the Dust Bowl and multiply it by the velocity of the average dust storm winds for a rough KE. There isn't much data on the total amount of topsoil displaced, but Britannica cites that about 1.1 billion tons of topsoil were displaced from the Great Plains 1934 to 1935, the most severe year of the drought
Pair this with the fact that dust storms rise when wind speeds exceed 13 mph or 20.92 kph
Would come around to a few kilotons of tnt in Town level but this only accounts for the energy the storm exerts rather than the energy needed to generate it, which I'm admittedly not learned in. Also this only talks about topsoil in specific areas in a specific timeframe, so it was likely higher than what I'm positing.
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