In 1902, a sandstorm occurred in Illinois, USA, but why did mud fall from the sky?

The world is full of wonders. In this vast world, nothing is impossible that you can’t imagine. You have seen it raining and snowing, but have you ever seen mud falling from the sky? As early as 1902, the eastern United States was covered with mud falling from the sky. Although it only fell for a few minutes, it caused panic all over the world. focus on. This may be due to the dust storm rolling up some soil!

On April 11, 1902, a sandstorm occurred in Illinois, USA. Its scale spread almost across the entire sky in the eastern United States. When the storm swept through New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, encounters with rain clouds here cause mud to fall from the sky.

Similar to the mud falling from the sky, there is rain, snow, or hail, which can be said to be normal. Sand-dust storm is the general term for sand storm and dust storm, and is a symbol of desertification. It refers to a disastrous weather phenomenon in which strong winds stir up a large amount of sand and dust from the ground, causing the horizontal visibility to be less than 1 kilometer. It is sudden and short-duration and has low probability and high harm. A sandstorm refers to a sandstorm caused by strong winds blowing large amounts of sand into the near-surface layer; a dust storm is a storm caused by strong winds carrying large amounts of dust and other fine particles into high altitudes.

Weather conditions that are conducive to strong winds or strong winds, favorable sand and dust source distribution and favorable air instability conditions are the main reasons for the formation of sandstorms or strong sandstorms. Strong wind is the driving force for sandstorms, and sand and dust sources are the material basis of sandstorms. Unstable thermal conditions are conducive to the increase in wind power and the development of strong convection, thereby entraining more sand and dust and carrying it higher.

In addition, drought and lack of rain in the early stage, warm weather, and rising temperatures are the special weather background for the formation of sandstorms; the development of convective cells in front of the ground cold front into clouds or squall lines is conducive to the development of sandstorms And strengthened small and medium-scale systems; the terrain conditions that are conducive to increased wind speed, that is, the narrow tube effect, are one of the favorable conditions for the formation of sandstorms.

The main component of soil and yellow sand is silicate. When there is drought and little rain and the temperature warms, the silicic acid on the surface of the silicate loses water.

H2SiO4=Si2O3+ H2O (gas) ↑

In this way, the surfaces of silicate soil micelles and sand grains will be negatively charged, and they will repel each other. They will become aerosols and cannot condense together, thus forming blowing sand or sandstorms. Dust storms are essentially negatively charged silicate aerosols.