When the author says "the earth ran amok", he means the earth was total chaos, that it had no control as it usually would with "normal" weather or "normal" conditions.
Explanation:
During 1930, there was a severe dust storm that damaged the agriculture of America and Canada. The agricultural land became drought due to this dust. The drought-stricken Southern Plains region of the United States was named as dust bowl.
The author says “the earth ran amok” on seeing the dust bowl. That means he says that the land affected with the dust storm had so much dirt and mud as if they were in amok.
During the Dustbowl in the US, there have been drought conditions in the southern plains. The dust blowing through the region has been able to kill a number of people with cattle and has destroyed the crops.
In the context of the dustbowl of the US, the author says the earth ran amok to depict that there has been chaos all around the earth. The weather has been far away from the normal conditions.
For more information about the dust storms, refer to the link:
https://brainly.com/question/11205206
