dunes
May 30, 2018
There are a lot of dune fields on Mars. Over the last ten years I’ve been part of a group that’s mapped out the big dark dunes on the planet to see where they form, and to understand the sedimentary […]
May 9, 2018
Here’s a grand dune, making its stately way northward under winds blowing mainly from the south-southeast (bottom to top), with a secondary wind blowing from the southwest (lower left to upper right). There are two rippled and sharp-crested slip faces […]
March 5, 2018
Baby dunes on Mars are pretty big compared to those on Earth. In this 885×512 m (0.55×0.32 mi) frame, there are four dunes of roughly the same size, all of which are about as small as dunes can get on […]
March 1, 2018
There’s so much going on in this 0.75×0.75 km (0.47×0.47 mi) image. You’re looking at a broad dune migrating toward the upper right. It’s early summer, but this is close enough to the north pole that some winter ice lingers […]
February 20, 2018
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 […]
February 12, 2018
This is the upwind edge of a dune field (825×625 m, 0.51×0.39 mi). Winds blow down a cliff (offscreen) from the lower right, blowing sand toward the upper left. Elongated dunes have formed parallel to the resultant wind direction, only […]
February 5, 2018
The busy, busy wind has moved a lot of things to make this 0.6×0.85 km (0.37×0.53 mi) landscape. First it built a big dark dune, covering it and the surrounding surface with ripples. Then it dumped a bunch of bright […]
January 22, 2018
A Piece of Mars: This is a section of Arnus Vallis (scene is 1.25×1 km, 0.78×0.62 mi). It’s a >300 km long valley that was carved out, not by water, but by lava, long ago. Since then the wind has […]
January 18, 2018
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 […]