American Geophysical Union | University of Texas | 2016 Mar 31
[img3="Sediment-filled craters on Mars (top) in different stages of erosion compared with results of a crater model in wind-tunnel experiment (bottom). Warm colors indicate high elevation, cool colors low elevation. (Credit: Mackenzie Day et al)"]https://news.utexas.edu/sites/news.utex ... figure.jpg[/img3][hr][/hr]New research has found that wind carved massive mounds of more than a mile high on Mars over billions of years. Their location helps pin down when water on the Red Planet dried up during a global climate change event. ...
The findings show the importance of wind in shaping the Martian landscape, a force that, on Earth, is overpowered by other processes, said Mackenzie Day ...
To test whether wind could create a mound, the researchers built a miniature crater 30 centimeters wide and 4 centimeters deep, filled it with damp sand, and placed it in a wind tunnel. They tracked the elevation and the distribution of sand in the crater until all of it had blown away. The model’s sediment was eroded into forms similar to those observed in Martian craters, forming a crescent-shaped moat that deepened and widened around the edges of the crater. Eventually all that was left of the sediment was a mound — which, in time, also eroded away. ...
Carving Intracrater Layered Deposits with Wind on Mars - M. Day, W. Anderson, G. Kocurek, D. Mohrig
- Geophysical Research Letters (online 31 Mar 2016) DOI: 10.1002/2016GL068011