Decoding how sand grains move and accumulate on Earth can also help scientists understand dune formation on Mars.
dunes
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Microbe Goo Could Help Guide the Search for Life on Mars
Sticky substances secreted by microbes may help create landforms on Earth. And new research shows that these substances are more preserved in iron-rich sediment. Mars is decidedly iron-rich (it’s the Red Planet, after all), so the new study adds to evidence that microbe goo could help researchers explain landform creation there. “I think this is […]
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Las plantas construyen dunas pero pueden acelerar la erosión durante tormentas fuertes
Cuando las olas golpean las dunas con vegetación, se forman áreas anegadas frente a las plantas, lo que facilita que la arena sea arrastrada por la corriente más fácilmente. Sin embargo, las plantas aún son necesarias para formar las dunas en primera instancia.
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Plants Build Dunes but Can Speed Erosion During Severe Storms
When waves hit vegetated dunes, waterlogged areas form in front of plants, making for sand that’s easier to wash away. But you still need plants to form dunes in the first place.
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The Nitty-Gritty Forces That Shape Planetary Surfaces
Scientists are coming up with ingenious ways to compare terrestrial sand dunes, dust storms, and rain with their counterparts on Mars and Titan.
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Mapping Martian Dunes from Orbit
New research shows how fast the sands shift on the Red Planet and how useful imagery from different orbiting cameras can be in studies of Mars’s dunes.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Seeing Mars in a Grain of Sand
The second phase of Curiosity’s campaign at the Bagnold Dunes brought new observations of windblown sands during Mars’s windy season.
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Planetary Dune Workshop Expands to Include Subaqueous Processes
The Fifth International Planetary Dunes Workshop: From the Bottom of the Oceans to the Outer Limits of the Solar System; St. George, Utah, 16–19 May 2017
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A Rover’s Eye View of Moving Martian Dunes
A new special issue of JGR: Planets presents findings on sand motion, morphology, and mineralogy from the Curiosity rover’s traverse of the active Bagnold dune field in Gale crater.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Curiosity Spies Shifting Sands on Mars
Images from the rover’s pioneering encounter with sand dunes on Mars constrain wind speeds required to move sand in the thin Martian atmosphere.