erosion
December 31, 2012
A piece of Mars: Dunes often cannibalize each other, with new dunes forming from the sand in older dunes. Here the tan dunes have formed from the sand that made up the grayish blue dunes. Notice the banding on the […]
December 19, 2012
A piece of Mars: On Earth, it’s typically water that erodes a landscape, as rivers cut down rocks, storms trigger landslides, and ocean waves eat away at shorelines. On Mars, it’s usually the wind that slowly grinds down a landscape. […]
December 16, 2012
A piece of Mars: These wispy dunes look like veins on a leaf, don’t they? The thicker ones are older, and they are slowly being reworked by the younger, thinner ones. If they remain active, then the smaller ones will […]
November 25, 2012
A piece of Mars: Small dunes (or possibly ripples) are likely no longer moving in today’s winds. Or are they? Dark splotches on their upper (northern) sides suggest some kind of wind scour has recently occurred. Winds blow, create dunes, […]
November 20, 2012
A piece of Mars: Some places on Mars highlight just how effective the wind is at sculpting the surface. This is a good example. Dark and light stripes on the right show not one but two successive influxes of sand: […]
October 9, 2012
A piece of Mars: I just adore that the wind can do this to a landscape. Over a long period of time, two different winds have scratched deep grooves in a rocky surface. Wind-carved rocks like this are called “yardangs”. […]
September 25, 2012
A piece of Gale crater, Mars: Cream-colored ripples wind their way through rough terrain. Looking more closely, the rocky surface seems to be made of highly eroded parallel ridges that are nearly perpendicular to most of the ripples. These ridges […]
September 19, 2012
A piece of Mars: Impact craters are typically round circles, so when you see one that isn’t, it’s usually because something has changed its shape into something less perfectly round. These craters are squooshed on the lower right side, as […]
September 9, 2012
A piece of Gale crater, Mars: Here’s a view of a small piece of Mt. Sharp, both from Curiosity (on the right) and from orbit (on the left, HiRISE ESP_028269_1755). A broad valley visible from the rover is revealed to […]