aeolian
December 30, 2015
A Piece of Mars: The long meandering lines snaking across the image (3.2×1.8 km or 2×1.1 mi across) are inverted channels. They are river deposits that once were the lowest part of the landscape (rivers always are), but then the […]
December 14, 2015
Sorry for the pun in the title there, but NASA asked for it by naming their rover like that. And you’ve seen it done a hundred times, so let’s grit our teeth, smile, and carry on. Anyway. So I’m more […]
November 17, 2015
A Piece of Mars: This 0.96×0.54 km (0.6×0.33 mi) area shows ripples forming on a layer of dark gray material. In a few spots, the gray layer has been eroded away (probably by wind scour), revealing the lighter, tan-colored terrain […]
November 12, 2015
A Piece of Mars: This 480×270 m (1575×886 ft) area shows a seemingly endless field of ripples. They’re big, about 50 m (164 ft) from crest to crest, and probably about 5 m (16 ft) high. Is there a knit […]
October 12, 2015
A Piece of Mars: This scene is 0.96×0.54 km (0.60×0.34 mi) across. There’s an old river valley running across it. The walls of the valley have been eroded and there’s a washboard pattern with a wavelength of ~6m (20 ft). […]
October 5, 2015
A Piece of Mars: The dark dunes in this 0.96×0.54 km (0.60×0.34 mi) scene are slowly migrating towards the lower left. Look closer and you’ll see brighter ripples between the dunes – the biggest ones are ~8m (26 ft) apart. […]
August 26, 2015
A piece of Mars: These dunes look strangely triangular, a little bit like a flock of stealth bombers. Why? They’re two-faced barchans. Each flat face is an avalanche slope that faces downwind, formed by one of two distinct wind patterns […]
July 31, 2015
A piece of Mars: There’s an egg-shaped plateau here (the whole scene is 480×270 m or 525×295 yd across, the “egg” is ~100 m long). It’s partly covered by dunes that have extended across it. Or were the dunes there […]
July 27, 2015
A piece of Mars: So much wind. There are dark swirly tracks of dust devils that have passed by, ripples covering dunes, wind scours around rocks, and of course dunes. Dune crests have a different color than other regions: are […]