Sand Dunes in Kaiser Crater
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) high resolution image shows a
field of dark sand dunes on the floor of Kaiser Crater in southeastern Noachis Terra. The steepest
slopes on each dune, the slip faces, point toward the east, indicating that the strongest winds that
blow across the floor of Kaiser move sand in this direction. Wind features of three different scales
are visible in this image: the largest (the dunes) are moving across a hard surface (light tone) that
is itself partially covered by large ripples. These large ripples appear not to be moving--the dunes
are burying some and revealing others. Another type of ripple pattern is seen on the margins of
the dunes and where dunes coalesce. They are smaller (both in their height and in their separation)
than the large ripples. These are probably coarse sediments that are moving with the dunes. This
picture covers an area approximately 3 km (1.9 mi) across and is illuminated from the upper left.
Photo Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
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