Tag Archives: wind

Shifting sands

Posted on December 1, 2011 by rburnham

Sand — in wind-blown ripples, drifts, and dunes — lies all over Mars. But it poses a puzzle because the current atmosphere is too thin (less than 1% of Earth’s) to move that much sand around. So researchers in the … Continue reading →

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When Apollinaris Patera went boom

Posted on November 16, 2011 by rburnham

Stretching more than 5,000 kilometers (3,000 miles) between the two volcanic centers of Tharsis and Elysium is a geological enigma, the Medusae Fossae formation. The formation, which lies in several separate patches, appears to be made of easily eroded materials, … Continue reading →

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Dune activity in Arabia and Meridiani

Posted on October 31, 2011 by rburnham

Mars continues to show itself active, at least as far as dunes are concerned. A new study published in Geophysical Research Letters (October 22, 2011) by a group of scientists led by Simone Silvestro (SETI Institute) reports on dune movements … Continue reading →

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Devilry in the air

Posted on September 2, 2011 by rburnham

With all the spacecraft orbiting Mars, it’s slightly surprising that there aren’t more observations of dust devils shared by two or more instruments. Writing in the September 2011 issue of Icarus, a team of scientists led by Dennis Reiss (Westfälische … Continue reading →

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