aeolian
July 6, 2015
A piece of Mars: In this image (0.96×0.54 km or 0.6×0.33 mi), it’s late winter and the sun is barely above the horizon here near the north pole. The dunes are covered in winter frost, most of which is CO2 […]
May 25, 2015
A piece of Mars: this 0.96×0.54 km (0.6×0.33 mi) scene shows a large, rippled dune that is slowly marching towards the upper right. The smooth striped band running from upper left to lower right is the slip face, where sand […]
April 19, 2015
A piece of Mars: This 300×300 m (984×984 ft) scene shows bright windblown dunes or ripples arrayed in a lacy pattern (the biggest ones are about 5 m, or 16 ft, across). This is near the landing site of Ares […]
March 18, 2015
A Piece of Mars: With all due apologies to followers of the show Coupling, I have to call these things “melty dunes”. This link shows what a crisp dune should look like. The dunes in this 600×450 m (0.37×0.28 mi) […]
February 2, 2015
A piece of Mars: What happens to dunes as they move over rough terrain? This is what a barchan looks like on a relatively flat surface. If the hills are smaller than the dune, then it does its best to […]
January 26, 2015
A piece of Mars: This scene (600×450 m or 1969×1476 ft) is covered in small craters, formed by the splash of a larger crater nearby. They cover everything, even the bright ripples visible on the right. So the ripples were […]
January 21, 2015
A piece of Mars: The curving ridge of a mountain has signs of many small landslides. Mantled on top of these is an older set of landslides that has been partially eroded away. The rippled edge of this older deposit […]
January 12, 2015
A piece of Mars: This 600×450 m (1969×1476 ft) scene has a complex sedimentary history. How are bearded craters and dunes formed? They weren’t always bearded. At some point, a deposit of bright material accumulated on this surface, and was […]
December 19, 2014
A piece of Mars: Some time ago, something hit the ground on Mars and made this impact crater, right into a field of ripples. Stuff thrown up during the impact fell back down, burying the ripples with the gray ejecta […]