Dust

The infamous Dust Bowl era began on November 11, 1933 when very strong dust storm stripped topsoil from desiccated South Dakota farmlands. The many serious dust storms and droughts during this time in the prairie regions of the US and Canada caused major damage to its economy, ecology and agriculture. 500,000 people were left homeless before it came to an end when normal rainfall resumed in 1939.

In the 1930s, dust storms were so severe that the static electricity generated would arc from your body to the nearest metal object and knock you head-over-heels. Two men shaking hands could literally knock each other out.

During the Dust Bowl, storms were so severe that its clouds blew smoke as far away as Boston, Massachusetts. Red snow fell on New England in the winter of 1934-1935. 

A dust storm approaches Stratford, Texas, in 1935.

Back in the command module, following the Apollo 11 Moon landing, the astronauts found the moon dust on their space suits had a pungent smell — ‘like gunpowder’.

Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt was allergic to moon dust—as soon as his helmet came off, he started sneezing like he had hay fever.

During Kim Il-Sung's reign in North Korea, people went to prison for letting dust collect on his portrait.

The verb 'to dust' has two opposite meanings. If you dust, you may either add fine particles (dust with sugar) or remove fine particles (dust your furniture).

About 27 tons of dust rains down on the earth each day from space, making a total of almost 10,000 tons each year.

Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin.

Up to 15,000 dust mites can thrive in just one gram of dust.

At the center of almost every snow crystal is a tiny mote of dust, which can be anything from volcanic ash to a particle from outer space.

The major issue the Apollo astronauts had was Moon dust, which caused ‘lunar hay fever,’ problems with space suits, and dust storms in the crew cabin upon returning to space.

Lunar dust is actually composed of tiny bits of glass that will kill a human if they are exposed for too long.

Each year, 22,000 tons of dust from the Sahara Desert is carried by air currents to the Amazon Rainforest where it is an important source of phosphorus for tropical plants.