Pulling into a valley on Mars, scientists have discovered a wind-filled area of solid sand, which turned to rock about a billion years ago.
Despite the drastic decline, time has survived significantly in this stable plain of the Paleo-Dunes, which is longer than the fossil waves of sand on Earth, subject to the migratory landscapes of wind, water and deep deep time.
Understanding how these tunes stood the test of time can give an insight into the processes of taps on Mars and at the same time reveal something about the geographical history of the planet.
“This level is very low for terrestrial sand dunes due to ongoing erosion and tectonics,” explains Matthew Cheznaki, a planetary scientist at the Eclipse Science Institute.
“Based on the relationship between other geographic units and e-deposits and modern erosion rates, we estimate that this is about a billion years old.”
(NASA / JPL / University of Arizona)
Today on Mars, wind-blown sand dunes, are a common feature and its size and arrangement in fixed places in the wide part of the Welles Marineris Valley – Melas Spectacles – Melas Spectacles – looks remarkably similar to those recently formed.
This suggests that the atmosphere and atmosphere on Mars have changed very, very little over a very long time. Astronomers say that the direction, length, height, shape and slope of the Paleo-Dunes in Mela Chasma all resemble waves of sand seen elsewhere on the Red Planet.
“This suggests that the main wind directions that are responsible for the shape of the mounds have not changed significantly over time,” Chojnaki told Earthsky.
“We also see sand dunes of very similar size and spacing during the two periods. This indicates that the atmospheric pressure was not significantly different.”
Using images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HIRISE) and Martian topography data, researchers have documented and dated the bedform properties of Melas glasses.
Nevertheless, the topography of this valley is still incomplete, as some of the hills have been moved or buried, the Paleo-Dunes which we can interpret “do not depict dramatically differently than what can be obtained from their modern counterparts.” Explain.
The authors found that some of the murals were buried under ten meters of material, which was found to have come from a catastrophic volcanic eruption.
(Chojnaki et al., JGR planets) 2020)
Later, as the authors predicted, the volatile compound came in contact with unglazed compacted sand and helped to harden them, while cooling the waves as they migrated around the mela chasma.
A similar process can be seen on Earth when groundwater invades une gala of partially buried sand – which forms lithipped sand layers like stripes visible in the famous striped Zion National Park. Unlike our planet, however, there are very few elements opposed to the un-galaxies of lithium sand on Mars.
In the absence of water, vegetation, or plate tectonics, contact with the trade winds on Mars is the main eyebrow, and during the Onda period, this has helped to chisel the volcanic shell covering the tunes.
Close a throat of sand taken by Hirse K Camera Mera. (NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Ari Rizona)
The only amount of survival and preservation found in these mounds suggests a significant difference in the landscape evolution of Earth and Mars.
While ancient lithipped sand dunes on Earth are rare and rare, Melas Chasma “consists of extensive paleo-sandy fields scattered on the basin floor, where many dunforms and their morphology appear largely intact.”
“Water and tectonics that constantly shape the Earth’s surface are not currently a factor on Mars, so there is an opportunity to learn from the red planet’s geographical records,” says Chojanki.
“These results tell us that wind-driven sand transport, deployment and lithization have been found throughout much of Mars’ history and show how the landscape there differs greatly from Earth’s in evolution.”
The study has been published in JGR planets.
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