aeolian
January 24, 2014
A piece of Mars: On Oct. 15, 2013, Curiosity drove past a crater that has small dunes or ripples on its floor. In a new HiRISE image, you can see Curiosity’s tracks from that day (its 424th sol on Mars). […]
January 13, 2014
A piece of Mars: Where the wind blows strong and there’s a lot of sand, the surface gets scoured. Some bits of the ground, called yardangs, are more resistant and stick around: they take on shapes elongated in the direction […]
January 8, 2014
A Piece of Mars: Bright hills appear to be bearded (or perhaps mustached?). What’s going on? Dark sand has blown over some yellow-crested hills and settled on the downwind side, where the hill blocks enough wind that it can no […]
December 27, 2013
A piece of Mars: A single dune sits on the surface of Mars, not too far from the north pole. It’s early spring, but this far north the dune is still covered in white CO2 frost (as well as a […]
December 23, 2013
A piece of Mars: Normally I post color images, but this one is just too cool to skip. These ripples formed ages ago: long enough ago that the impact of several small bolides formed craters (seen on the left), disrupting […]
November 29, 2013
A Piece of Mars: Two-toned ripples have formed on a steep slope, created by winds rushing downhill (from top to bottom in this frame). The larger ones are big ripples, with peaks more than 30 meters apart. What makes them […]
November 25, 2013
A Piece of Mars: These rocks look like hooded figures from some dark fantasy story. European standing stones should be jealous, they don’t typically get a shroud of dark sand to add to their mystery and etch them into beguiling […]
November 13, 2013
A piece of Mars: Right at the edge of the largest volcano on Mars (Olympus Mons) is a steep cliff. Here, near that edge, are some car-sized boulders poking out from a thick blanket of dust. Strong winds blow down […]
October 25, 2013
A piece of Mars: Barchan, or crescent dunes, are generally thought to form from winds blowing from a single direction. Reality isn’t usually that nice. Here are two barchans with crescent-shaped slip faces on their eastern (right) sides, indicating that […]