From: tkoenig@netcologne.de   
      
   On 2018-03-23, Christian Weisgerber  wrote:   
   > On 2018-03-23, frank.scrooby@gmail.com  wrote:   
   >   
   >> The book opens with a monster dust storm that Andy Wier admits was   
   ridiculously 'sexed up' for the drama.   
   >   
   > It has always been unclear to me how bad a sandstorm at ~1% of   
   > Earth's atmospheric pressure could possibly be.   
      
   Not very.   
      
   Maximum pressure on mars is around 11.6 mbar, maximum observed wind   
   speed is around 30 m/s.  Given a max. approx density of the   
   atmosphere of 0.03 kg/m^3, the maximum dynamic pressure would be   
   around 27 Pa, or 0.27 mbar.   
      
   Comparison: This is what you get on Earth for a 4.5 m/s wind,   
   which is Beaufort 3, or a gentle breeze.   
      
   (Calculated with  p_dyn = 1/2 * rho * u^2, where p_dyn   
   is the dynamic pressure, rho the density and u the velocity).   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)