Sol 1288, March 21, 2016. Curiosity is driving across the Naukluft Plateau. This is part of the Stimson Formation, a flat-lying, thin-layered sandstone with crossbedded features that indicate it was once a field of dunes. (Click image to enlarge.)
According to new research (PDF) presented by Steven Banham (Imperial College, London) at 47th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in The Woodlands, Texas, the ancient Stimson dune field was shaped by prevailing winds that blew toward the northeast, the opposite of wind patterns produced at Gale Crater today under the current Martian climate.
“Our observations lead us to interpret the Stimson formation as the preserved expression of eolian dunes which were migrating to the northeast, across an undulating northwest dipping paleoslope [the Murray Formation].” Banham notes. “Throughout the duration of the dune field’s existence, the system experienced episodes of aggradation when sediment supply increased to allow migrating dunes to climb, preserving the basal parts of the dunes as the now-preserved stratigraphy.”
Sol 1288 raw images (from all cameras), and Curiosity’s latest location.