Tag Archives: CO2 ice

HiRISE image: Craters in an icy surface

Posted on February 26, 2014 by rburnham

Small impact craters usually have simple bowl shapes, but sometimes more complicated shapes can occur if the target is unusual. The crater in the center of this HiRISE image is unusual because there is a wide, flat bench, or terrace, … Continue reading →

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HiRISE image: shapes and spots on a polar sand dune

Posted on January 22, 2014 by rburnham

This image shows numerous dark shapes and bright spots on a sand dune in the Northern polar regions of Mars. The bright spots are carbon dioxide frost. On Mars, the main atmospheric component is carbon dioxide, which circulates seasonally between … Continue reading →

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Dry ice slabs carve linear grooves down Mars dunes

Posted on June 12, 2013 by rburnham

The “megadune” in Russell Crater features linear grooves or gullies a few meters wide, a meter or two deep, and roughly a kilometer or two long.

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Icy jets erupt from north polar dunes in spring

Posted on March 27, 2013 by rburnham

Jets of gas erupting in the springtime from beneath slabs of carbon dioxide ice at the Martian south pole was a dramatic finding in 2006. It explained the mysterious “spiders” which came and went each year.

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Loess in the lowlands

Posted on December 11, 2012 by rburnham

A team of geologists led by James A. Skinner, Jr. (U.S. Geological Survey) has discovered and mapped a previously unidentified unit in the Martian northern lowlands. The unit appears to give evidence of a major climate shift long ago in … Continue reading →

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Making polar spiders in the lab

Posted on July 19, 2012 by rburnham

The formation of “spiders” during Martian south polar spring is one of the most spectacular natural phenomena on the Red Planet. Briefly, what happens is that every winter carbon dioxide ice forms a translucent layer above the sandy ground. Then … Continue reading →

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Latitude controlled Amazonian ice flows

Posted on May 18, 2012 by rburnham

Signs of underground ice deposited in the Amazonian period (the most recent in Martian history) are common in many places on Mars. Evidence includes tropical mountain glacier deposits, lobate debris aprons, lineated valley fill, concentric crater fill, and pedestal craters. … Continue reading →

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Seasonal changes seen in south polar gullies

Posted on March 20, 2012 by rburnham

Images from the HiRISE camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have captured the first visible evidence for seasonal changes in gullies on slopes in the south polar region of Mars. Giving a report (PDF) at the 43rd Lunar and Planetary … Continue reading →

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Polar gullies erode from carbon dioxide flows

Posted on December 14, 2011 by rburnham

Gullies on Martian slopes form by flowing water, most probably trickles of snowmelt or groundwater. But what about the gullies found in places such as the high latitudes and polar regions where temperatures never rise above the freezing point for … Continue reading →

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Dry ice glaciers?

Posted on October 12, 2011 by rburnham

Scientists examining rocky remnants in Mars’ northern polar region believe they have found evidence for a type of glacier unknown on Earth – one where the ice is made of frozen carbon dioxide rather than water. Mikhail Kreslavsky (University of … Continue reading →

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