The Dust Bowl occurred during which decade?

• A. 1920s
• B. 1930s
• C. 1940s
• D. 1950s

Answer: (B)

The main idea is understanding how climate stress combines with land-use practices to create large-scale environmental disruption in a specific time. The Dust Bowl happened in the 1930s because a severe drought struck the Southern Plains, with the worst conditions from about 1934 to 1936. Farmers had plowed up native grasses and left the soil bare, so when the drought dried the topsoil, it became easy for strong winds to lift huge amounts of dust. Those wind-driven storms—often called dust bowls—devastated crops, damaged farms, and displaced tens of thousands of people. While recovery and soil-conservation efforts began around the late 1930s and into the 1940s, the defining decade of the Dust Bowl is the 1930s.