Tag Archives: crossbedding

March 15, 2013

Spines

A piece of Mars: Here are some old dunes that look a little like vertebrae of fossils (if you think they look like dragon spines poking out of the ground then you're playing too many video games). The white areas ...

January 8, 2013

Mysterious textures

A piece of Mars: Dunes don't usually have a rough surface texture like these do. It's not clear what's going on. Are they ancient dunes that are being eroded? What causes this particular texture? It seems unique to high elevations ...

December 31, 2012

Dune cannibals

A piece of Mars: Dunes often cannibalize each other, with new dunes forming from the sand in older dunes. Here the tan dunes have formed from the sand that made up the grayish blue dunes. Notice the banding on the ...

August 3, 2012

A beautiful tangle

A piece of Mars: Compare this with my post five days ago and you might think the scenes are similar. In fact they're not. In the previous case sedimentary layers were carved out by the wind, leaving behind swirly patterns ...