NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has begun an up-close investigation of dark sand dunes up to two stories tall. The dunes are on the rover’s trek up the lower portion of a layered Martian mountain. A view of the rippled surface of what’s been informally named “High Dune” is online at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA20168
A wheel track exposing material beneath the surface of a sand sheet nearby is at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA20169
The dunes close to Curiosity’s current location are part of “Bagnold Dunes,” a band along the northwestern flank of Mount Sharp inside Gale Crater. Observations of this dune field from orbit show that edges of individual dunes move as much as 3 feet (1 meter) per Earth year.
The rover’s planned investigations include scooping a sample of the dune material for analysis with laboratory instruments inside Curiosity. [More at link]