stabilized
February 11, 2019
When I look for something to blog about, I usually go to the HiRISE catalog to see if there are any new pictures that I find interesting. Today this lovely dune field caught my eye: HiRISE images are about 6 […]
April 13, 2018
This is the 3rd (and final) entry in a blog series describing a paper I recently published with colleagues in JGR Planets. Here are links to the previous two entries: Part 1, Part 2. Wow, I didn’t think this would […]
January 8, 2018
A Piece of Mars: The north polar dunes in this 575×325 m (0.36×0.2 mi) scene are made of dark sand covered by bright winter frost (which will soon sublimate away, as this image was taken in late spring). To the […]
June 5, 2017
A Piece of Mars: Having a bad day? You’re in good company with these dunes in this 0.96×0.48 km (0.6×0.3 mi) scene. The gray barchanoid dunes are covered in ripples, as the wind valiantly tries to push the sand to […]
January 3, 2017
A Piece of Mars: Mars rarely does anything without drama. Long ago in this 0.96×0.54 km (0.6×0.34 mi) scene, large ripples formed and then, presumably, lithified (turned into rock). Some time after that, an impact formed the crater in the […]
December 26, 2016
A Piece of Mars: Nicholas Steno was a 19th century geologist, who came up with some principles that are still used today to guide interpretation of exposed sedimentary rocks. The principles seem a bit obvious, but then some of the […]
November 21, 2016
A Piece of Mars: Dunes and ripples most commonly form in topographic lows. But not in this 0.96×0.54 km (0.6×0.34 mi) scene. Here, and in other places on Mars, these bedforms (called TARs) form on plains, and sometimes appear to […]
November 7, 2016
A Piece of Mars: Wind from the upper left is blowing dark dunes toward the lower right in this 1.92×1.08 km (1.19×0.67 mi) anaglyph (if you don’t have your red/blue 3D glasses handy, you can also check out the black […]
August 15, 2016
A Piece of Mars: Potential signs of wind activity are everywhere on Mars. Take this 0.96×0.54 km (0.6×0.34 mi) scene, which is on bedrock dated to be several billion years old. There’s a fabric of ridges trending from the upper […]