They are known by many names: Haboob, Simum, Black Blizzards. A solid wall of dust almost a mile high, moving whole sand dunes and bringing Biblical darkness to the huge areas of the world. Scorching hot winds (up to 40 degrees Celsius) blowing the sand around with hurricane speeds... What seems extreme to us is actually a common occurrence in Africa and the Middle East. The similar sand-saturated hurricane-speed storms over Mediterranian are called Sirocco, Yugo and Ghibli. The dust (or desert sand) particles become airborne and held in suspension, creating a moving front. The convection of cold air over the heated ground maintains the storm and keeps the dust rolling.
See one such storm coming into the Israeli Negev desert from Sinai (advancing with the speed of appr. 40 mph). According to the photographer Eviathar ben Zedeff (link), the sand wall is over 4,000 ft high:
Here is an alarming fact: sand storms now happen ten times more frequently than fifty years ago. For example, Mauritania had only two storms per year in the early Sixties, now it's more like EIGHTY a year. Sahara's sand is also being sent into the Atlantic at an accelerated pace (five times growth in one year, since 2006!) - however, this could be a good thing, according to Wikipedia, as it will cool off the ocean enough to slightly ease the ongoing 2007 hurricane season.
The Dust Bowl Ecological Disaster
North America did not escape the arrival of these monsters, either. The "Black Dusters" of the 30s repeatedly swept the Great Plains (nicknamed the Dust Bowl), with dust trail stretching all the way from Texas to Chicago. This agricultural disaster was caused by a combination of factors, most notably by the excessive farming, done without a crop rotation, coupled with severe drought. Here is a historic photograph of a dust storm in Texas, taken in 1935:
The Dust Bowl disaster caused a major exodus of the Great Plains population, a displacement of up to 2.5 million people. (15% of Oklahoma moved to California, for example)
This is how they described the inside of a "Black Blizzard": "Nothing was visible without electric light; you could not see five feet in front of you at certain points.... (the storms) came without warning and left everything in their paths with a clinging mantle of black silt."
The following video shows the similar wall of sand, this time in Iraq, turning day into the darkest night: (It seems to be the same storm that the pictures showed in our previous post "Atmosphere Goes Nuts")
Space imagery helps to better understand the scale of such events: For example, this is a dust storm over Burkina Faso, covering almost the whole country -
(image credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center)
Sirocco and other near-hurricane speed winds bring the dust and sand over the ocean... A giant plume of sand is swept off the African coast and Sahara desert, reaching hundreds of miles into the Atlantic:
(image credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center)
Dust covers Astana, the new capital of Kazakhstan:
The awesome scale and a certain atmospheric effects of the sand storms open new possibilities for photographers (just keep your camera tightly packed when a sandstorm hits).
The dust storm in Arizona creeps from the left corner in this spectacular picture. The brilliant sunset paints the skies, all the more colorful because of the fine dust particles suspended in atmosphere. This photo reminds me of the work of Dale Terbush, a talented "painter of light" from Arizona.
Mystery Picture: The next picture may look like an incoming dust storm, but it is just a cloud front. Notice the "surfer", er... glider riding this "Cloud Front Wave": (we would like to find out the location of this photo, for its seems to be a relatively common occurrence there)
UPDATE: This cloud phenomena is The Morning Glory" cloud bank, sweeping over the remote Australian outback of northern Queensland. Thanks Agniuz Nesvarbu.
The photos of African dust storms and dust being blown out into the Atlantic and over Spain are quite normal, where I live in Ireland, I sometimes go out to my car in the morning and find a film of very fine red Saharan sand covering it.
(For those of you who don't know, Ireland is several thousand miles from the Sahara desert)
Nice pics....The series of Astana are fog, not dust. The tint right around sunrise is most likely due to particulates (dust or smoke) but the low cloud is fog, which can be seen moving and dissipating in the third photo.
the jet in front of the house is probably not parking ..
it is a swedish Gripen - and those jets are designed to operate from simple streets in the woods and elsewere ... that way no evil enemy can bomb the airbases - or at least he will not gain much from it ..
You can find out more about the red car with the building supplies at the Urban Legends site (it's listed as "true", incidentally.) http://www.snopes.com/photos/automobiles/lumber.asp
The plastic crate shot is not 'shopped. Some may look squashed but its because they're either deformed by the position/weight or just short in height. I doubt most any of these are photoshopped, this kind of thing is common all over the world.
The bumper car is not lost, i saw this guy on dutch television a few weeks ago. He made it himself, and it's actually street legal, although it has a maximum speed of 45 km/h.
the "box-car" seems to be shopped. at least the shadow of the car on the right side of it doesnt show any crates. the fact that the shadow only shows the part infront of the trunk does keep the possibility that all the baskets are actually in and above the trunk without support of any other parts of the car. but its still a good photomontage. =)
The jet in front of a house is indeed a Swedish Saab Gripen. And it's true they can operate from simple streets in the woods and elsewhere. But this picture, I think, is actually from within the fence of the Swedish Air Force base in Såtenäs, F7 (Flotilla number 7). A number of the staff lives inside the base, very near the taxiways. And the base is very picturesque. I've been there a couple of times, and as far as I can remember, this is what it looks like. They actually taxy from the bomb-proof shelters out to the runway through scenery like this.
"1000 Hands: Mesmerizing Japanese Show" video is great. But I read the comments and it says that it is Chinese. (trivia : it says, the owners of those hands were deaf)
You might want to check out the Insanity and the X-Scream at the Stratosphere Hotel in Las Vegas.
The Insanity has 4 rotating cars that swing out to face the ground as the ride rotates. The arm the ride is built on then swings out over the Las Vegas Strip so that you're suspended about 1100 feet in the air. Completely...well...insane. I ride it every time I go to Vegas.
The X-Scream is basically a 40 foot long piece of roller coaster track which they lift up and dump over the side of the building. There's nothing quite like facing the ground below when you can't see the end of the track! Then, just for good measure they lift the track and shake it a bit before pulling you back in.
I've been on X at Six Flags Magic Mountain. Problem is that I'm a really tall guy, so my legs are longer than others. My legs felt like they were going to pop-off on that roller coaster. I almost knee'd myself in the face, it was total chaos for me. Goliath is way more fun, and the lines can be really short, like, 5 minute wait short.
The "into the water" coaster is definitely in Yokohama, Japan; just 30 minutes south of Tokyo. It's a part of a little amusement park that's by they're cool and touristy water-front area. I went on it last year, and remember it as being way fun, but over way to fast!
the Tatsu coaster in Six FLags Magic mountain would be good for the next one in the series - you get to fly like superman - and see the ground/sky with noting between you. Amazing ride!! http://www.ultimaterollercoaster.com/coasters/yellowpages/coasters/tatsu_sfmm.shtml
There's a coaster like the one you show from Edmonton here in the Twin Cities. It's at the Mall of America, in what is now called "Nickelodeon Universe" but was originally "Camp Snoopy". Was initially called the Timberland Twister, but I think it got renamed when the park got rebranded for Nickelodeon. Hubby has been on it, and greatly enjoyed it. He likes roller coasters. I am content to watch them from the ground. ;-)
I'm particularly intrigued by the picture of HMCS Halifax's fo'csle, though - who's the poor blighter who has to go out and drop the fence onto the deck to save it from being ripped off the gunwales? It looks like there's a cable to strap on to, but I wouldn't be to chuffed with that detail!
One cubic meter of water weighs one ton. If a storm wave 12 meters high hits a ship, you can count on 6 tons of force per square meter, which is less than half the structual strength of large vessels (15 tons per square meter). But...rogue waves hit with an estimated force of 100 tons per square meter.
Many factors determine damage to any given ship under rogue wave conditions: stress fatigue (the structural stress brought about by doing what ships do), compressive strength (the ability to fight crushing forces of the wave), longtitudinal bending stress, shearing (tangent to the main body) stress, progressive stress (at the point where ships load and unload cargo), operational error and possible cargo shift, to name a few.
I reckon it would be impossible to retro-fit the world's ships to withstand such an onslaught. The best we can hope for is an early warning system enabling ships to get out ...wayyyy out...of the rogue wave path.
(A snappy Navy salute to the hearty souls who bravely navigate the world's oceans every single day.)
Amazing pictures! Just wanted to add that actually despite the efforts of the 'Abeille Flandre' the sinking of the Erika did indeed cause 'a huge oil spill' seeing as the ship's sinking released thousands of tonnes of oil into the surroundings seas which killed thousands of France's birds and was a serious environmental disaster for the country. In addition, negligence towards the safety of boats like the Erika was deemed responsible for the sinking.
I believe thats is a hummingbird moth. they fly just like a hummingbird. there are several videos of them on you tube.. heres one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7SF8_OhHks&mode=related&search=
The bird / insect animal is a Hummingbird Hawk-moth (Macroglossum stellatarum). A colibri (hummingbird) looks quite different - and certainly has no antennae. ;)
Could you be so kind to call them a Chimpanzee and a Gorilla instead of "monkeys"? Although they are related, therre IS a difference between Monkeys and Apes. Thank you!
"QUANTUM SHOT" #260
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7 Comments:
The cloud surfer pic was taken over North Central Australia. More on the 'Morning Glory' cloud formation here
Great pictures! These really remind us of the power of Mother Nature.
Best Wishes
Let's Acquire Wisdom and Live with Passion
My friend Michael took this great pic last week in Phoenix, Arizona of a dust storm coming in.
http://www.higherground4x4.com/Dusty_Night%20048.jpg
The photos of African dust storms and dust being blown out into the Atlantic and over Spain are quite normal, where I live in Ireland, I sometimes go out to my car in the morning and find a film of very fine red Saharan sand covering it.
(For those of you who don't know, Ireland is several thousand miles from the Sahara desert)
Nice Blog.
But there a small mistake here :
Khartoum is the capital of Sudan! so it is not in Egypt for sure :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khartoum
Thank you Chris,
I added your picture.
Nice pics....The series of Astana are fog, not dust. The tint right around sunrise is most likely due to particulates (dust or smoke) but the low cloud is fog, which can be seen moving and dissipating in the third photo.
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