By comparing radar images of areas on Titan to those of Earth's deserts, scientists have identified two distinct types of sand dune on Saturn's largest moon – and discovered eroded structures that indicate that Titan's ...
Space Exploration
Nov 6, 2015
0
111
Three Irish scientists have discovered how winds shape sand dunes on Mars by using image data from the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and then comparing patterns with wind models that were tested on dunes ...
Space Exploration
Nov 5, 2015
2
109
Mount Baldy, a sand dune in Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, may appear to be no more than an innocent pile of sand grains speckled with vegetation, but the rolling slopes hide narrow, deep holes, which are evidence of entombed ...
Space Exploration
Nov 3, 2015
1
30
Avalanching sand from dune faces in Death Valley National Park and the Mojave Desert can trigger loud, rumbling "booming" or short bursts of "burping" sounds—behaving as a perfectly tuned musical instrument.
Soft Matter
Oct 27, 2015
0
93
I study how windblown desert features can be used to monitor wind patterns and atmospheric conditions in remote places, such as Mars, where there are plenty of pictures of the surface but not many instruments on the ground.
Space Exploration
Oct 8, 2015
1
15
Some of the dark sandstone in an area being explored by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows texture and inclined bedding structures characteristic of deposits that formed as sand dunes, then were cemented into rock.
Space Exploration
Sep 12, 2015
12
1864
Beginning in the 1880s, coastal dunes in the United States were planted with European beachgrass (Ammophila arenaria) in an attempt to hold the sand in place and prevent it from migrating. The grass did the job it was brought ...
Ecology
Apr 27, 2015
0
19
Archaeologists at the Petrified Forest National Park in the southwestern U.S. have discovered an ancient village that is unique for its size.
Archaeology
Oct 10, 2014
0
0
As the morning sun rises over the golden dunes of Erg Chebbi in the Sahara, men and women dig holes for tourists who want to bury themselves in the sand.
Environment
Oct 10, 2014
1
0
The amazing ability of sidewinder snakes to quickly climb sandy slopes was once something biologists only vaguely understood and roboticists only dreamed of replicating. By studying the snakes in a unique bed of inclined ...
Robotics
Oct 9, 2014
0
0
