NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Dune Avalanche Scars

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-809, 5 August 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows large, low albedo (dark) sand dunes in
Kaiser Crater near 47.2°S, 340.4°W.
The dunes are–ever so slowly–moving east to west
(right to left) as sand avalanches down the steeper,
slip face slopes of each. Avalanching sand in the Kaiser
dune field has left deep scars on these slopes, suggesting
that the sand is not loose but is instead weakly cemented.
The image covers an area approximately 3 km (1.9 mi) wide
and is illuminated by sunlight from the upper left.

Malin Space Science Systems and the California Institute of Technology
built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission.
MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, California.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Mars Surveyor Operations Project
operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial
partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena,
California and Denver, Colorado.