Tag Archives: north polar sand sea

HiRISE image: Defrosting dunes

Posted on February 21, 2014 by rburnham

Beautiful Mars series: Serious dune defrosting. The dark material is most likely the result of sublimation, where a solid goes directly into a gas, exposing the subsurface material on the lighter top. The ice is carbon dioxide ice, so it … Continue reading →

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THEMIS image: North polar dunes

Posted on February 14, 2014 by rburnham

THEMIS Image of the Day, February 14, 2014. This VIS image shows a portion of the huge dune field located at the north polar cap. As spring continues to deepen, the dunes are becoming darker and darker as they lose … 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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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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Wind triggers activity in north polar dunes

Posted on July 9, 2012 by rburnham

The sand sea surrounding the Martian north pole covers an area about a third the size of Earth’s Arabian Desert and is roughly equal in size to the Kalahari. Dunes are a common feature on Mars, just as in terrestrial … Continue reading →

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