On Earth and throughout our solar system, ripples and dunes in sand and dust offer insights into how winds blow, liquid currents flow, and solid particles fly and bounce over the terrain.
sand
Posted inNews
Satellites Spy on Sand Mining in the Mekong
Concrete, used in everything from streets to skyscrapers, needs sand, often mined from active rivers in developing countries with little oversight. Researchers can now use satellites to keep watch.
Posted inNews
Dunes Dance to a New Rhythm in Climate Change
Dunes may morph or creep in new directions in a warming world.
Posted inNews
Megaripples on Mars—How to Name Wind-Shaped Features on the Red Planet
New research suggests a more settled terminology for Martian aeolian landforms based on size and geomorphology.
Posted inScience Updates
Earth’s Continents Share an Ancient Crustal Ancestor
How did today’s continents come to be? Geological sleuths found clues in grains of sand.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Unravelling Sands and Muds Suspended in Coastal Environments
A new study uses the response of optical and acoustic measurements to derive a sediment composition index for prediction of the relative fractions of mixed sediments in suspension.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Megaripple Migration Offers Insights into Martian Atmosphere
The movement of large sand ripples, documented for the first time, suggests Mars is windier than we thought.
Posted inNews
To Protect the World’s Sand, We Need to Know How to Measure It
New research provides a more accurate model that coastal managers and engineers can use to account for sand transport over time.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Microbial Mechanisms Change with the Seasons
Microbes living in the sand on a barrier island alter the way they break down organic matter as their environment changes throughout the year, which has implications for the surrounding water column.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
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.