Sandstorms, or samumas – a phenomenon of nature frightening by its alienation. Flying suddenly, they do not know the barriers, filling the air with tiny particles of sand, and they can not be stopped.
Sand, or dust storm – an atmospheric phenomenon, quite unpleasant and dangerous.
Most often, sand storms occur in desert and semi-desert regions.
Most of all, dust storms occur in the Sahara Desert.
Sand storms are not only on Earth. On Mars they reach tremendous power and last sometimes for several months.
A sufficiently strong dust storm can reach any point on the surface of the Earth.
The main harm from sand storms is that they significantly damage soil cover, threatening their fertility.
Sand storms can move dunes.
The height of sandstorms varies usually from a couple of meters to a kilometer, but there are recorded cases of observation of storms with a height of more than one and a half kilometers.
One day, because of the sandstorms in the US fell red snow.
In 1928 in Ukraine, a dust storm raised more than fifteen million tons of chernozem from the surface of the earth.
In 2009, one of the strongest sandstorms in the history of observations fell on Australia.
Another common name of the sandstorm is the Samum.
Most countries suffer from sandstorms, such as Egypt and Mauritania.
The temperature of the surrounding air in the area of a sandstorm often reaches fifty degrees.
Environmentalists say that in recent decades, sandstorms occur an order of magnitude more often than before.
