lfenton

October 3, 2016

Windblown: ancient and recent

A Piece of Mars: HiRISE is celebrating 10 years of success by showcasing its first high resolution image, taken back in 2006. Here is a portion of it, shown at 1/4 the full resolution (the scene is 2.5×2.5 km across). […]
September 26, 2016

Is it windblown or not?

A Piece of Mars: This 480×270 m (0.30×0.17 mi) scene shows what are being called “ridges”. Were these ridges once dunes that have now been stabilized and eroded? They have some dune-like characteristics: nearly parallel crests, one slope is steeper […]
September 19, 2016

Light and dark

A Piece of Mars: This 0.96×0.54 km (0.6×0.34 mi) late winter scene is a study in contrast. The dark top half is uniformly rippled. This is the shady surface of the main windward side of one of Mars’ biggest dunes, […]
September 12, 2016

Shades and textures

A Piece of Mars: This 480×270 m (0.3×0.17 mi) scene shows the contact between two very different terrains. On the left is a bright surface with polygonal cracks (characteristic of periglacial terrain – this is at a high latitude). On […]
September 5, 2016

Eroded dune

A Piece of Mars: Barchan dunes on Mars have a characteristic crescent shape, with a steep slope (“slip face”) on the inside of the sharpest curve (see examples like this, this, these, or this). This image (873×491 m, or 0.54×0.31 […]
August 29, 2016

Where does the windblown stuff come from?

A Piece of Mars: How far do windblown materials move on Mars? This scene (0.9×1.2 km, 0.56×0.75 mi) shows a bright layer of bedrock (top right) that is eroding, exposing a darker, bluish rock (bottom left). Ripples 5-20 m wide […]
August 22, 2016

Erosional remnants

A Piece of Mars: The erosionally-streamlined bright areas are on high ground. They are remnants of a vast dusty mantle that once covered this whole area – the rest of it has been blown away. The surrounding regions (check out […]
August 15, 2016

Ancient ripples?

A Piece of Mars: Potential signs of wind activity are everywhere on Mars. Take this 0.96×0.54 km (0.6×0.34 mi) scene, which is on bedrock dated to be several billion years old. There’s a fabric of ridges trending from the upper […]
August 8, 2016

Fossil dunes

A Piece of Mars: This 1.92×1.08 km (1.19x 0.67 mi) scene shows eroded ridges that are, in fact, lithified dunes. They are so old that you might not recognize them as dunes without more context. This doesn’t happen much on […]