How is Mars similar to Earth? The latest study explains

However, attention has now shifted to another element that could be a common link between Mars and Earth.

A new study seeks to understand wind phenomena on Mars by focusing on what happens when two dunes collide there.

The results of the study, conducted by Mackenzie Day of the University of California at Los Angeles, have been published in the journal ‘Geology’.

Dunes develop when windblown sand organizes itself into patterns, most often in deserts and arid or semi-arid regions of the world. Every continent on Earth has dune fields, but dunes and dune-like sand patterns are also found throughout the solar system.

On Earth, weather stations measure the speed and direction of the wind, which allows us to predict and understand the flow of air in the atmosphere.

“On Earth, we know that dunes collide, combine, bond and merge all the time. This is what causes dune field patterns to change over time. When this happens, the “Dune-dune interaction leaves behind a peculiar pattern in the sand, but this pattern is usually covered with active moving sand and difficult to see without special tools,” Day said.

On Mars, many dunes look and behave the same as dunes on Earth, but in addition, Mars harbors organized sand patterns that resemble dunes but have some differences that have not yet been explained by the scientific community. Whether these unusual features, sometimes referred to as “transverse wind ridges” or “mega ripples” are shaped like dunes, has long been debated.

“In this work, I show that these unusual windblown sand ridges sometimes show on their surface the pattern that forms when two dunes combine,” Day added.

In the Iapygia region of Mars, the transverse aeolian ridges incorporated both light and dark sands, leading to chiaroscuro bands on the upstream side of the ridges. The bands appearing only on one side of the ridges suggest that the bands formed during the migration of the ridges. Additionally, the dune interaction pattern known from Earth can be observed in some ridges where the bands are truncated and then reconnect, as can two dunes touching and then combining downwind.

The pattern associated with dune interactions only forms when two dunes combine, so seeing it in these Martian sand ridges demonstrates that these enigmatic features (like those shown in the attached image) behave like dunes on Earth. .

“Much like the dunes on Earth, the transverse wind ridges on Mars migrate, combine and develop complex patterns in response to the wind,” Day said.

Transverse wind ridges are incredibly common on Mars, and the results of this work allow us to better interpret the wind on Mars’ surface using these dune-like features.

“Overall, this work harnesses both knowledge of Mars and knowledge of Earth to understand the other planet and opens the door to improving the way we interpret the wind through more planetary bodies. far into the solar system, ”Day concluded.