layers
August 19, 2012
A piece of Gale crater, Mars: What exactly is Mt. Sharp, the big mountain Curiosity is set to climb up? Here’s a picture of what it is: layers and layers and layers and layers. And more layers. Probably sedimentary, but […]
August 3, 2012
A piece of Mars: Compare this with my post five days ago and you might think the scenes are similar. In fact they’re not. In the previous case sedimentary layers were carved out by the wind, leaving behind swirly patterns […]
July 29, 2012
A piece of Mars: When the wind sandblasts at layered rocks, some pretty swirly patterns emerge. These are flat layers that take on a stacked wedding-cake appearance on an outcrop elongated by the wind. The direction of the stacks indicates […]
June 20, 2012
A piece of Mars: The thin stripes within stripes are the bones of dunes. You’re seeing old dunes that have had their tops eroded away so you’re seeing into their insides, as if you were dissecting them in a biology […]
June 19, 2012
A piece of Mars: This is the edge of the northern polar cap on Mars. At the top is the bright icy surface, which is abruptly cut by a cliff. The wall of the cliff shows many layers of different […]
May 31, 2012
A piece of Mars: Erosion by sandblasting has revealed layers in volcanic rock. Likely nearly horizontal, the wind here has shaped the surface so the layers appear to be festoons, swirling across the landscape. (HiRISE ESP_021627_1975)