active

June 8, 2020

Hills with tails

June 8, 2020 No long descriptions or explanations today, just a pretty picture of a lee dune (the dark rippled finger extending down the left side of this image): The rounded gray hills at the top are part of the […]
February 20, 2018

Ius Chasma dunes: they move

Many dunes on Mars are actively migrating, like these dunes (view is 0.4×0.5 km, 0.25×0.31 mi). These are found deep in Ius Chasma, one of the Valles Marineris. These dunes slowly migrate toward the right, pushed by winds blowing from […]
January 18, 2018

Varying wind directions

A Piece of Mars: This 0.5×0.4 km (0.31×0.25 mi) scene shows two dunes near the north pole. The shape of the dunes indicates two main winds: one blowing left to right (which makes slip faces on the right side, one […]
December 19, 2016

The trail of a dune

A Piece of Mars: A low, broad dune occupies the center of this 800×450 m (0.5×0.28 mi) scene, blown by a dominant wind towards the lower left. The slip face on the lee side has several small avalanches, formed as […]
November 28, 2016

Grainfall

A Piece of Mars: The dunes climbing over a rocky surface in this 0.96×0.54 km (0.6×0.34 mi) scene are mostly yellow because they’re covered (and therefore kept immobile) by dust. The crest of one dune, though, shows recent activity: dark […]
November 7, 2016

Dunes and rock hurdles in Gale crater (3D)

A Piece of Mars: Wind from the upper left is blowing dark dunes toward the lower right in this 1.92×1.08 km (1.19×0.67 mi) anaglyph (if you don’t have your red/blue 3D glasses handy, you can also check out the black […]
June 6, 2016

Itty bitty changes: places where the wind barely moves sand

A Piece of Mars: Not all dunes on Mars are moving at a measurable pace. This 0.96×0.45 km (0.6×0.28 mi) scene looks a lot like one I posted 3 years ago called Martian Sports. This image shows the same dunes […]
April 4, 2016

The wind paints

A Piece of Mars: For the last few billion years, the wind has (by far) moved more sediment around on Mars than any other geological process. Not tectonics, volcanism, fluvial activity, or impact cratering (although a case has been made […]
February 20, 2016

It’s a rock-eat-rock world

A Piece of Mars: This 738 x 415 m (0.46 x 0.26 mi) scene shows dark sand flowing down a channel bisected by a ~60 m (~200 ft) tall, thin “island”. That island, and many others around it (see the […]