South Korea isn’t situated in Middle East countries where the desert expands. However, during the spring season, especially in March, a huge amount of dust, similar to small sandstorm, covers all the provinces in South Korea and bothers the citizens.
What it is?
The South Korean sandstorm is actually a seasonal phenomenon calls the Yellow Dust, but it’s little bit bigger. It originates from the Gobi Desert in Mongolia and northern China. The sandstorm develops step by step. In the beginning, when the deserts get humid in spring, the dust and dried soil particles are carried up by high speed surface winds at 3000 to 5000 fit high. The winds pass towards to East Asian countries and when they arrive to South Korea, the air current becomes slow. Then, the winds descend to the land and make scatters of dust and sand, which look like the small sandstorms.
Problems?
The sandstorm causes a lot of troubles in South Korea. First of all, the dust makes sky yellow and hazy and hides sun, so it damages the agricultures and aviation in the airports. People can’t breathe easily and get eye diseases and throat troubles. Also, the sandstorm contains some heavy metallic substances including lead and aluminum, and it affects acid rain.
Also know about…
One of South Korea’s worst sandstorms was in May 1, 2011. There were total 800 micrograms of dust and sand per cubic meter in the air, which was two times stronger than the normal condition. In 2002, the amounts of money used from the government for the damages of the sandstorms in South Korea was around 50 million dollars and in 2005, total 1 million 817 thousand citizens got several medical treatments from the damage of the dust.
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