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Explaining the Columbia Shuttle Disaster, February 1, 2003

On February 1, 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia broke apart as it was reentering the Earth’s atmosphere, instantly killing all seven crew members on board. The Columbia shuttle disaster was one of the darkest days in the history of NASA. It forced the organization to undertake fundamental changes to its space shuttle missions in an effort to prevent another such disaster from occurring. As it turned out, NASA engineers were already fully aware of the problem that led to the Columbia shuttle disaster. This makes the loss of life all the more tragic.

Space Shuttle Columbia: Mission STS-107

The seven-member crew of Space Shuttle Columbia left Earth on Jan. 16, 2003, and it was to be the last time any of them set foot on the planet. The crew were taking part in mission STS-107. This was Columbia’s 28th mission and NASA’s 113th space shuttle launch overall. Mission STS-107 was originally set to launch on Jan. 11, 2001. However, the launch was delayed 18 different times due to various issues. Compared to previous NASA missions, STS-107 was unique in that it was solely focused on scientific research. This was at a time when almost all of the agency’s efforts were directed towards the construction of the International Space Station.

Jan. 16, 2003: Disaster Strikes During Columbia’s Launch

On the morning of Jan. 16, Columbia’s crew boarded the shuttle at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center and began their preparations for launch. The initial launch went smoothly. However, disaster struck approximately 82 seconds after the shuttle left the ground. This is when a large piece of foam insulation broke off from Columbia’s external fuel tank and smashed into the reinforced panels on the shuttle’s left wing.

At the time that the foam struck the orbiter, Columbia was at an altitude of around 66,000 feet above sea level or 12.5 miles. It was traveling at a speed of over 1,600 miles an hour. Later investigations and testing done after the Columbia shuttle disaster showed that the piece of foam likely created a six- to 10-inch hole in the shuttle’s wing. It was this hole that eventually spelled disaster for Columbia and her crew.

The ‘Foam Shedding’ Problem

Footage from the launch directly showed the piece of foam insulation breaking loose from the external tank and striking the shuttle’s wing. This footage was taken from the ET Cam. The camera had been specially mounted to Columbia’s external tank during the launch to allow NASA engineers to get to the bottom of what they termed the ‘foam shedding’ problem. The foam shedding problem had previously been seen on four different launches. Unfortunately, NASA engineers apparently didn’t view it as a major problem; all four of the other missions were completed successfully.

NASA had known about the foam shedding problem for years. The fact that Columbia was the first mission to use the ET Cam in an effort to better understand the foam shedding problem indicates that the agency was at least trying to do something about it. However, this didn’t stop the media and Congress from openly criticizing NASA following the Columbia shuttle disaster.

Columbia’s 16 Days in Space

As their mission was purely scientific and research based, Columbia’s seven-member crew spent their 16 days in space. They were working 24-hours a day performing science experiments in two shifts. Throughout their mission, the team performed approximately 80 different experiments in fluid physics, life sciences, material sciences and other disciplines. The crew was made up of six Americans and one Israeli: commander Rick Husband, mission specialists David Brown, Laura Clark and Kalpana Chawla, payload commander Michael Anderson, and payload specialist Ilan Ramon from the Israeli Space Agency.

While Columbia’s crew were focused on their experiments, the NASA team back on Earth was frantically trying to investigate the damage from the foam strike. In previous launches, the foam shedding had only ever caused minor damage. However, there were a number of NASA engineers who suspected that Columbia had suffered much more serious damage than in past missions. Nonetheless, officials eventually decided to halt the investigation into the damage; they felt that there was no way that the crew would be able to repair the problem.

In deciding not to further investigate, NASA even turned down requests from its engineers to have the Department of Defense (DoD) examine the extent of the damage using its orbital spy cameras. Although there was no guarantee that this would be able to fully reveal the damage, NASA decided to ignore its engineers’ requests. The DoD was apparently fully willing to cooperate, but NASA officials actively intervened to stop the department from providing assistance.

Feb. 1, 2003: A Nation Mourns the Columbia Shuttle Disaster

Space Shuttle Columbia breaking apart as it re-enters the Earth's atmosphere — Debris from the space shuttle Columbia

After spending 16 days in space, Columbia and its crew were set to land at the Kennedy Space Center around 9:16 am on February 1, 2003. At 8:44 am, Columbia began its re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere. A few minutes later, those in the Mission Control Center began to get their first signs that something was wrong. First the controllers lost the temperature readings from the shuttle’s left wing. Then, the tire pressure readings from the orbiter’s left side disappeared soon after.

Mission Control contacted the shuttle to notify the crew of the issue. Commander Husband responded by saying ‘Roger,’ but his next word was cut off. This was the last anyone would hear from Columbia’s crew. At 9:11, when the shuttle should have been making its final approach to the Kennedy Space Center, someone in Mission Control received a phone call stating that a TV news station was showing video of the shuttle breaking apart. NASA responded by sending teams to search possible debris sites in Texas and Louisiana. Eventually, later in the day, they declared that the shuttle and crew had been lost.

Following an extensive investigation, it was eventually determined that the foam had created a large hole in the left wing. This hole allowed extremely hot atmospheric gases to penetrate the wing during re-entry. These gases destroyed the internal wing structure, which caused the shuttle to become unstable and eventually break up.

Final Thoughts

As a result of the Columbia shuttle disaster, NASA suspended all shuttle launches for more than two years. The agency also made several notable changes. These included performing a thorough post-launch inspection and keeping a rescue mission on standby in case any major damage was detected. As a result, the agency has so far been able to avoid other major incidents.

Image Source: 1, 2, 3

10 Catastrophic Man-Made Environmental Disasters

Human activity is responsible for some devastating attacks on the natural world. Many of these man made environmental disasters could have been avoided if not for human greed, negligence, and carelessness. Here are ten of the world’s worst man made environmental disasters, listed chronologically.

1. Nuclear Testing at Bikini Atoll

Operation Crossroads Baker — Image Source: Wikipedia

Bikini, or Pikinni, Atoll is an island group in the Marshall Islands chain. The man made environmental disasters on the ring of islands began in 1946 when the U.S. began testing nuclear weapons there. Twenty-three devices were exploded between 1946 and 1958 on and around the islands. As a result, 167 Marshallese residents of the islands were forced to relocate. Bikini Atoll is no longer suitable for human habitation as a result.

Residents of nearby Utrik Atoll suffered acute radiation sickness. So did the 23 fishermen and crew members aboard the Japanese vessel the Daigo Fukuryū Maru. The ship’s radio operator, Aikichi Kuboyama, died as a result. Wildlife including the atoll’s coral reef were severely affected, with the effects still being present as recently as 2017. Nurse sharks are still being born with mutations caused by exposure to radiation.

2. Minamata Disease

Old picture of Chisso Corporation, Japan, responsible for one of the greatest man made environmental disasters — Chisso Corporation (Image Source: CARI Infonet)

In 1956, residents of the town of Minamata in Japan began experiencing neurological symptoms of mercury poisoning. They were exposed to toxic levels of mercury from eating the fish out of Minamata Bay, which was contaminated by industrial pollution by the Chisso Corporation. To this day, Chisso Corporation makes compensation payments to the victims. More than 2,200 people died as a result of methylmercury contamination.

3. Love Canal

Love Canal, Niagara Falls, New York — Image Source: Pinterest

Love Canal was a planned community in Niagara Falls, New York. William T. Love, the town’s eponymous planner, fell into financial difficulties, and the canal was used as a landfill and for dumping industrial waste. In the early 1950s, the dump was closed. Around the same time, the town experienced an economic and population boom. Families moved in and began having children.

Residents had long complained about unusual smells, substances, and an oily black runoff present in their yards and fields around the town, especially around the canal. Unknowingly, residents were being exposed to toxic industrial runoff, including benzene, dioxin, PCBS, toluene, and chloroform. They suffered a greater than average number of miscarriages, birth defects, neurological conditions, and abnormal white blood cell counts that can be a precursor to leukemia.

On August 7, 1978, then-president Jimmy Carter declared the site a federal health emergency. A 1979 study showed the 33 percent of Love Canal residents suffered chromosomal damage, compared to about one percent of the U.S. population as a whole.

4. The Amoco Cadiz Oil Spill

On March 16, 1978, the oil tanker Amoco Cadiz hit a rock off the coast of Brittany, France. This caused the control room to flood and led to the sinking of the ship. The shipwreck resulted in the spilling of 1.6 million barrels of light crude oil and 4,000 tons of fuel oil spilling into the Atlantic Ocean. Although the Deepwater Horizon disaster released more oil, the Cadiz disaster resulted in the greatest loss of aquatic wildlife as a result of an oil spill in human history.

5. Bhopal Disaster

Bhopal Disaster, India — Image Source: theCHIVE

On December 2, 1984, an industrial accident at the Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant released methyl isocyanate into the air. It caused the worst industrial disaster in the world’s history. Between 2,200 and 3,700 were killed by the gas release, an additional 558,000 were injured, and 3,900 were permanently disabled. An estimated 8,000 people died within two weeks of the release of the gas, mostly from respiratory failure. Inadequate safety equipment contributed to the disaster.

Drinking water is contaminated since pesticides from the now-abandoned plant have seeped into it. It was estimated in 2014 that 120,000 people still live with health effects of the disaster.

6. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

This floating example of man made environmental disasters was discovered some time between 1985 and 1989. The currents of the North Pacific Gyre (a marine ecosystem) trap particles of marine debris that includes chemical sludge and pelagic plastics. These particles are so small they can be hard to detect with the naked eye and can’t be seen using satellite photography. Although this makes it difficult to estimate the size of the debris field, some researchers believe it may be as large as eight percent of the total area of the Pacific Ocean.

Scientists believe the origin of these plastics is littering and improper industrial waste disposal. This includes the disposal of nets and other gear used by the fishing industry. The effects of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch aren’t fully known. However, the particles that compose it are small enough to be ingested by marine wildlife which then enter the food chain. Byproducts of the breakdown of plastics include toxic molecules such as bisphenol A (BPA) and polystyrene derivatives.

7. Chernobyl Disaster

Danger sign at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant — Image Source: Pinterest

On April 26, 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Pripyat, Ukraine (then part of the USSR) experienced an uncontrolled reaction incident, resulting in a steam explosion followed by a fire. Updrafts resulting from the fire released nuclear fission materials into the atmosphere. It contaminated the environment of the western USSR and parts of Europe.

The investigation revealed this man made environmental disaster was caused by design flaws at the plant and operator errors made during a shut-down safety test. Further errors were made in trying to contain the accident. Firefighters who arrived on scene weren’t told that they were entering the scene of a nuclear accident; they thought they were responding to an electrical fire. Nor was Pripyat evacuated immediately.

Two employees of the plant died immediately at the scene, 28 more of acute radiation sickness, and 14 more died of exposure to the radiation over the next decade. Four kilometers of forest died and the water system became contaminated. Furthermore, fish in the rivers were inedible for years afterward due to radioactive contamination. It is difficult to estimate how many people died as a result of the accident since there was a systematic cover-up by the Soviet Union. However, as many as 9,000 may have died from acute radiation sickness and long-term exposure to radioactivity. This makes the Chernobyl incident among the deadliest of man made environmental disasters.

8. The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound off the coast of Alaska — Image Source: Imgur

On March 24, 1989, an oil tanker ship named the Exxon Valdez struck the Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound off the coast of Alaska. The shipwreck caused more than 10.8 million gallons of crude oil to spill into the sound.

As many as 250,000 seabirds died as a result. Sea otters, river otters, bald eagles, salmon, herring, and orcas were some of the other species whose long-term health and survival rates were affected. Additionally, the 2-butoxyethanol used in the clean-up caused health problems for the clean-up crew.

An investigation determined the cause of the shipwreck to be an insufficient number of crew members, an overworked crew, and a steering error by the third mate. At that time, Exxon Shipping Company regularly overworked and undermanned its oil tankers, a recipe for man made environmental disasters.

9. Kuwaiti Oil Fires

Kuwaiti Oil Fires, a result of the first Persian Gulf War in 1991 — Image Source: Wikipedia

This man made environmental disaster was a result of the first Persian Gulf War in 1991. Iraqi military forces retreating from Kuwait, the country Iraq had unlawfully invaded, set fire to between 600 and 732 Kuwaiti oil wells, oil lakes, and trenches. This act of sabotage resulted in severely reduced air quality for the people and wildlife of Kuwait and the surrounding countries. More than 40 million tons of earth and sand were contaminated with oil and soot as a result of the largest oil spill in human history. Plant life was affected through 1995. Since oil from the spill continues to seep into the ground, human drinking water may continue to be affected in the future.

10. Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling unit on fire — Image Source: Wikipedia

The largest maritime oil spill in human history, this man made environmental disaster on April 20, 2010 killed 11 people and dumped 4.9 million barrels of crude oil in the Gulf of Mexico. Cost-cutting measures by the British Petroleum (BP) company that owned the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, the rig’s operator Transocean, and the contractor Halliburton led to neglect of equipment and unsafe working conditions. This resulted in an explosion and subsequent oil spill. BP officials pleaded guilty to 11 counts of manslaughter. The company was also temporarily banned from contracts with the U.S. government.

The Bottom Line

These disasters remind us that not only are human beings quite fragile, but our earth is fragile as well. Wildlife and water sources can easily become contaminated due to our activity. If we want everyone on our planet, human or otherwise, to live long, healthy lives, we’ll have to be better caretakers than this.

Where Do Sinkholes Occur and How Do They Form?

Sinkholes are one of the many terrifying disasters of nature. Unpredictable and sometimes deadly, they seem to swallow homes and roads without discretion. You see devastating stories about them on the news all the time, but how much do you know about sinkholes? What exactly are they? Where do sinkholes occur? Is there anything you can do to protect yourself from them? Let’s find out!

What Are Sinkholes?

A sinkhole is a large depression in the ground that occurs as a result of underground dissolution and erosion of limestone and other carbonate rocks. Most of the time they actually form slowly, but some sinkholes appear suddenly and unexpectedly after a long process of erosion underground. Sinkholes have several alternate names, including cenote, swallet, and doline.

Where Do Sinkholes Occur?

Great Blue Hole sinkhole — The Great Blue Hole (Image Source: Flickr)

So, where do sinkholes occur? The answer is that they can and do appear all over the world; there are sinkholes on every continent and even under the ocean (the Great Blue Hole).

What Factors Make an Area Prone to Sinkholes?

Where do sinkholes occur within a region? There are a few factors that make a sinkhole more likely to develop. Sinkholes are most likely to occur in what is known as a karst landscape. A karst landscape is a stretch of terrain composed of large amounts of soluble minerals such as limestone. The land in Florida is mostly composed of limestone, which is why that state has many problems with sinkholes.

Where do sinkholes occur in the ocean? Just like on land, ocean sinkholes tend to occur in areas with a lot of soluble sedimentary rock. Some notable underwater karst landscapes are found off the coast of Belize, the Bahamas and the Yucatan Peninsula.

The deepest underwater sinkhole in the world, which is named Dragon Hole, is found in the South China Sea. In 2016, it was estimated to be 987 feet deep.

The second-deepest underwater sinkhole is Dean’s Blue Hole in the Bahamas, which is estimated to be 663 feet deep.

Oceanic sinkholes are often referred to as blue holes because they appear as a dark blue circle that contrasts with the lighter-colored water around them. Blue holes fascinate biologists because of the rare bacterial life forms that survive in their oxygenless depths.

How Do Sinkholes Form?

Sinkholes can form as a result of either natural or artificial processes or a combination of both. There are three types of nature-derived sinkholes: dissolution sinkholes, cover-subsidence sinkholes, and cover-collapse sinkholes.

Dissolution Sinkholes

The formation of dissolution sinkholes begins when acidic rainwater seeps through the ground and dissolves soluble rock (usually limestone) beneath the surface. This creates a gap in the sediment layers under the earth, weakening the foundation. The ground eventually collapses into the gap, resulting in a sinkhole. Though dissolution sinkholes are considered to be nature-derived, human pollution indirectly contributes to their formation by causing acid rain.

Cover-subsidence Sinkholes

Cover-subsidence sinkholes form much more slowly than other types of sinkholes. Like dissolution sinkholes, they mostly occur in limestone-rich karst landscapes. The difference is that cover-subsidence sinkholes involve sand sinking into the ground instead of acid rain. The sand siphons into cracks and gaps in the rock layers below. Over time, this forms a sinkhole in the ground. Where do these sinkholes occur? They mostly form in karst landscapes with sandy, granular soil on the surface.

Cover-collapse Sinkholes

Cover-collapse sinkholes appear rapidly. Where do these sinkholes occur? Whereas cover-subsidence sinkholes occur in sandy areas, the cover-collapse variety tends to show up in areas where there is copious clay in the topsoil. This type of sinkhole, like the others, begins with the dissolution of rock deep underground. In this case, the clay-rich topsoil holds out for a long time before collapsing. A huge gap appears beneath the surface, forming a sort of arch underground. When the arch collapses, the results are devastating.

Man-made Sinkholes

Sinkholes with man-made causes are most often the result of groundwater pumping, which can affect water drainage patterns deep beneath the soil. In 2013, a small sinkhole opened up in San Francisco because an aging sewer system exploded. A similar incident occurred in Florence, Italy in 2016 when an underground water pipe exploded and created a sinkhole. Above-ground construction can also pose a sinkhole hazard if the building materials place too much pressure on vulnerable tracts of land.

How Can You Protect Yourself from Sinkholes?

In areas that are known to be high-risk for sinkholes, professional geologists should be consulted before buildings are constructed. Buildings can sometimes be reinforced with special piers that are screwed into the ground to stabilize them. Another reinforcement technique is to use chemical grouting. This involves injecting certain chemicals into the sediment. The grouting fills gaps in the soil and strengthens it.

Sinkholes can be very difficult to predict. Signs tend to be subtle: plants dying due to loss of groundwater, development of new ponds or puddles, failure of windows to shut correctly, etc. If the land around your house starts to sink, it is recommended that you evacuate as quickly as possible and notify the building inspection department of your town. Insurance may cover damages caused by the sinkhole, especially in areas where sinkholes are a common occurrence.

Summing Up

To recap, a sinkhole is a depression that forms in the ground as a result of the dissolution of rocks under the earth’s surface. There are several different types of sinkholes, and they can appear both on land and under the ocean. They occur all over the world, but they tend to happen most often in karst landscapes.

Sinkholes can be slow-forming or sudden and come in a variety of sizes. Damages can be offset by consulting with geologists, reinforcing building foundations, and injecting grouting chemicals into the soil.

What Causes Wildfires And How To Prevent Them

Wildfires are a destructive force of nature that you don’t want to cross paths with. Luckily, there might be a chance to prevent some bursts by knowing what causes wildfires. This is what we’ll be focusing on in the continuation of this article alongside with some solutions.

What Is A Wildfire?

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Real wildfire isn’t green and able to burn on the surface of water and we should be grateful for that. We say this because they cause enough damage as it is. Wildfires aren’t anything but uncontrollable blazes that have started to spread out on large areas of vegetation. These fires can last for several days straight and they scorch any kind of organic matter in their path.

In the United States, we can talk about approximately 100,000 wildfires starting every year. On an average, millions of acres of land get lost amid the blazes.

For narrower areas, wildfires that mostly affect one particular type of vegetation have their own specific names. We can have forest fires, grass fires, peat fires, or bush fires depending on which type of flora is affected most.

What Causes Wildfires?

Unfortunately, wildfire causes are many and plenty. It doesn’t help that forests and patches with dry vegetation are essentially danger zones. It’s worth noting that wildfires tend to start, most of the time, in areas with dry and hot climates.

Human Actions

Human intervention is what causes wildfires most frequently in the USA. Most of the time it’s because of our indirect actions, though there are some situations where the fire starts with intention. Find below a list detailing what causes wildfires at the hand of any of us.

#1 Campfires

Camping is loads of fun and strumming your guitar while roasting some marshmallows above a campfire can often make the whole experience all the more charming. However, unattended campfires are guaranteed wildfire hazards.

In order to avoid the possible outcomes of a campfire, your first step is ensuring that you’re setting up your tent in a relatively safe area. Igniting a blaze in the heart of the forest with logs and trees all around drastically increases the risk of a wildfire explosion. Moreover, don’t sleep with your fire still lit unless there is someone to watch over it. And don’t forget to put it out when you leave!

#2 Burnings

Many people burn debris and yard junk in order to get rid of it. It’s legal to do so, which should theoretically imply that it’s not dangerous. Unfortunately, at the end of the day, fire is still fire and it can easily get out of hand. Tricky winds may make it bigger and more difficult to keep under control.

If you really have to burn your debris, there isn’t really any way to avoid doing so. You can try to lower the risks of an inferno breaking out by always keeping a source of water nearby. Moreover, it would do to inspect your chosen area beforehand and see that it’s not particularly windy.

#3 Cigarettes

We’ve heard that cigarettes are bad in every possible way. They’re bad for your own health, for the health of people around you, and they’re harmful to the environment as well. When carelessly tossing a still lit cigarette on the ground, you’re turning this harm into a literal business.

Scratch the fact that it’s littering, a cigarette not properly put out can easily develop into a disastrous forest fire.

#4 Fireworks

Fireworks should only be handled by people who know what they’re doing, period. They can cause some serious injuries when not kept under control. And in even worse scenarios, a firework can be what causes wildfires. Always keep your firework shows in open areas with no trees, twigs, figs, bushes, and whatnot around you. Forest fireworks are just a bad idea all around.

#5 Arson

An arsonist sets fire to property, vehicles, and various other things with the express intention of causing damage. Cases of arson amount to approximately 30% of what causes wildfires. There are some people who willingly set fire to their own property and belongings in order to receive damage compensation. We can’t say this applies to forests since they’re public property, so for now we’ll just blame it all on a little bit of… mental instability.

Natural Causes

A human’s action isn’t the only factor that causes wildfires. Mother Nature has a say in all of this as well and, unfortunately, she doesn’t shy away from igniting whole acres of vegetation.

Lightning

Lightning is an extremely dangerous natural phenomenon, but it’s especially dangerous for forests. There is a particular type called “hot lightning” which is known to be the biggest fire-starter whenever a thunderstorm breaks out. Hot lightning can cause sparks that will set its vicinity ablaze, with the flame continuing to burn for a long time and being very difficult to put out.

Heat

During times of extremely arid and hot summer, the sheer power of the heat is enough to start wildfires. This happened in recent times both in the United States and other areas around the world, most notably in Australia.

Wildfire Prevention Solutions

Respect the law. There are specific regulations which refer to the act of burning objects and they also state which substances you are and aren’t allowed to burn. If one particular thing is banned, chances are this is because it’s easily flammable and can accidentally evolve into a wildfire.
Watch weather forecasts before you decide to start any fires, whether it’s burning junk or going camping. Avoid days that are particularly windy and that may pose obstacles in keeping the blaze under control.
Contain your fires. The best example for that is a well-built campfire, which technically doesn’t allow the fire to spread from its source – not incredibly fast, at least. Don’t ever assume that “it won’t happen to you.” Always think one step ahead and ensure you’d be able to easily put out a fire should things go out of hand.

9 Key Facts about Droughts You Should Read About

Here are some useful facts about droughts that you may be interested in knowing. This common natural disaster has an impact on many different aspects of our lives, including environmental, economical, and social impacts. Which is why it is important we get proper information about this so-called “creeping phenomenon”. In this article, we will reveal crucial facts about drought and the water situation in California.

First things first. Before sharing key facts about droughts, we must answer a few questions:

What is a drought? Droughts are a common natural disaster, and one of the worst to occur. It is a lengthy period of time that may stretch up to a few years in which the land experiences a lack of water
How do droughts occur? A drought can take decades to fully develop. They are also quite difficult to predict. Droughts occur when there is a prolonged absence of rain. They can take place at any given time. This means that it is not uncommon for droughts to occur during winter time.

9 Facts about Droughts You Should Know

1. There are different types of drought

Although we use “drought” as a general term, there is more than one type of drought.

A socioeconomic drought is the one that affects the humans in a certain society through water shortage. Individuals living in these areas lack access to drinking water and running water.

A meteorological drought can affect a region that is suffering from a lack of rainfall.

The agricultural drought describes areas where people cannot grow crops because of the water scarcity. As a result, the production of foods is affected and it shows in the higher price of crops.

A hydrological drought translates into a low level of water in the lake and the reservoir in an area.

2. They affect both wildlife and plant life

When extreme droughts occur, wildlife can die. However, most of the animals can still be saved when the drought does not last for too long.

Plants, on the other hand, are more sensitive. If the land starts showing signs of decline, entire crops may stop growing and get destroyed.

The damage caused by drought also reflects in the prices of vegetables, fruits, and other crops. Increased prices are one of the many effects that occur because of this phenomenon.

3. They stand a higher risk today

The risk of drought occurring has actually doubled today. And it is all due to climate change. It affects a wide range of factors associated with drought. It is believed that climate change will particularly increase the risk of two types of droughts: hydrological and agricultural. Scientists believe that increased temperatures will lead to more rain, but lessen the probability of snow and early snow melt, along with increased evaporation and transpiration.

4. There is a pattern

In the United States, droughts are more likely to affect the Midwest and the South. More than 44 percent of California is in exceptional drought. This is the worst level of drought according to the Drought Severity Classification.

5. They lead to hunger and famine

Food crops cannot be supported in these conditions because of the scarcity of water. The grass and grain that farmers use to feed their livestock face the same problem. As droughts reduce or destroy food sources altogether, people in an affected area go hungry. If its level of severity is high and continues over a prolonged period of time, famine is most likely to occur.

6. They influence the Sierra Nevada Snowpack

Speaking of facts about droughts in California, the Sierra Nevada Snowpack is also experiencing an abnormality. Counted on to provide about 30 percent of California’s water supply through the melting of the snow, it is reported that the snow-water content is only 5 percent of normal. Earlier this year, in April, researchers noted that the average snow-water equivalent for California was only 19 inches, which is just 71 percent of normal. In the same month, nearly 90 percent of the state was suffering from some level of drought.

7. They have an impact on our health

Droughts often cause an insufficiency of clean water for drinking, personal hygiene, and public sanitation. This, of course, can lead to a broad range of possibly life-threatening diseases. In a drought, some people may reduce hand washing and other practices as a way to conserve water. This proliferates the spread of infectious diseases such as gastrointestinal illnesses. Since severe droughts can also impact the air quality, the CDC reports an increased risk for respiratory illnesses such as pneumonia and bronchitis.

Furthermore, certain mental health effects are linked to droughts. People whose livelihood is connected to water supplies (farmers and horticulturalists) may develop adverse mental health conditions. Financial-related worries can cause anxiety, depression, and other behavioral health conditions.

8. There is a link to mosquito-borne diseases

As droughts shrink bodies of water, it becomes stagnant. This offers mosquitoes the perfect breeding ground. Furthermore, the lack of water can change the behavior of the insects and have them infected themselves with diseases carried out by certain types of birds. Consequently, it may lead to outbreaks of St. Louis encephalitis, Eastern Equine encephalitis, and West Nile virus.

9. They lead to desertification

When droughts recur and continue to recur, they can lead to desertification. When desertification occurs as a result of drought, it can produce an incredibly severe ecological catastrophe. The most obvious example would be the Horn of Africa, which has seen recurring droughts.

Drought and desertification are interconnected natural phenomena. Inappropriate human land management in combination with climatic constraints drive land degradation and desertification. Scientists expect that climate change will aggravate both the duration and the severity of drought worldwide. These conditions will add up to the already fragile drylands. This may accelerate the rate of desertification.

When comparing them to tornadoes or floods, people often do not consider droughts to be such a catastrophic natural phenomenon. However, these key facts about droughts should shed light on the serious consequences they can have. While it may be tough to stop droughts from occurring, we can still try to find ways to manage the situation better.

IMAGE SOURCE: 1, 2, 3