July

July 31, 2017

Mars’ giant bubble wrap

A Piece of Mars: This 0.7×0.5 km (0.43x.31 mi) scene shows Mars’ giant yellow bubble wrap, with each “bubble” about 100 m across (seriously, don’t you want to pop them?). These are actually a type of dune called a “dome […]
July 25, 2017

Cross-strata or not?

A Piece of Mars: Sand dunes are one of the few sedimentary phenomena that leave behind layers that aren’t horizontal. They tend to have a characteristic lean to them (and we call them cross-strata). So when I see something that […]
July 17, 2017

Westward moving

A Piece of Mars: No great scientific insights today, just a really lovely view of bright TARs and some very dark sand in this 0.875×0.5 km (0.54×0.31 mi) scene. Only one major wind acts in this region, moving sediment toward […]
July 13, 2017

Experimenting with 3D views

A Piece of Mars: I often use JMARS to visualize Mars data sets, especially images. They’ve recently updated their 3D layer, allowing folks to make lovely vistas by overlaying DTMs with images. I’m new at this, but I’ll experiment and […]
July 10, 2017

Reversing slip faces

A Piece of Mars: This 523×750 m (0.32×0.47 mi) scene shows a large dune. It’s quite colorful for some reason, although it’s partially false-color. What caught my eye is that the slip face on this dune has reversed direction, which […]