by Our double team loaded the car with a GPS, a drone, notebooks, sample bags, a trowel and a flat spatula that is lovingly called a scoop. Then we drove 30 minutes in our rented truck from Yuma, Arizona, to the Algodones Dunes, a sand field adjacent to California, Arizona and Mexico. The day was sunny, with a strong breeze. Turning off the highway, we carefully went on a gravel path that acted as our road.
After we had made progress decently – as bumpy – we pulled up the sandy surfaces and drove slowly to the dunes, afraid that we might get stuck in the sand. After we arrived at the edge of the algodones, we stopped and we loaded our backpacks and then we left on foot in the desert.
The coarse and fine-grained sand at the Algodones dunes. Lauren Berger
It was November 2022. As a graduate student at Texas A & M University I started a part of my Ph.D. Investigate with my adviser, Geology Professor Ryan Ewing. We were looking for coarse -grained sandwrinkers, which are poles with a pattern that are formed by wind. Sand Ripple and sand dunes are species of aeolic bed forms, which are created by the wind geological characteristics.
Aeolic bed forms are common on earth and about the solar system, including on Mars, Venus, Pluto, the Saturn Moon Titan, the Neptune Moon Triton and Comet 67p. These geological characteristics, observed from the first land forms by external images of planetary surfaces, are robust indicators of the wind patterns in the world.
A drone flying at Algodones. Note the GPS on the tripod and a GPS target on the ground, which was also a landing pillow for the drone. Ryan Ewing
Measure sand patterns personally
The shapes and patterns of aeolic bed forms can reveal the environmental conditions that they have created.
Two sizes of the same bed shape, such as small dunes on top of Big Dunes, are called composite bed shapes. I study composite bed forms on two scales-the meter and centimeter-format coarse grainy ripples on the dunes here on earth, and the kilometer and meter-format dunes on Mars.
With the algodones I measured the height of each large coarse -grain sandripple and the distance between adjacent ripples. Then we flew our drone layer and stable, above the ripples, to make high resolution images. With the drone data we can do further measurements on the ripples later, back to my desk.
On that day I learned an essential rule of fieldwork in the desert: don’t forget. Otherwise, if your vehicle gets stuck, such as ours, you must dig it by hand. Fortunately for us, a dune buggy driver helped us and we were able to go back to Yuma for dinner on time.
Drone images with high resolution of the sandwrinkers in Algodones. Lauren Berger
My introduction to Mars
I was interested for the first time in Eolic bed forms during my second -year year of the university, when I did an internship at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. My job was to view surface images of Mars and then to map the sandwrinkers in the areas where perseverance, the Mars Rover, could land. I judged the areas where ripples can have been dangers – places where the Rover could get stuck in the sand, as our rental car put in the algodones.
I mapped those sand rimples on Mars for two years. But while I was mapped, I became fascinated by the patterns that the ripples made.
Now, as a graduate student and aspiring planetary geologist, my time is divided between work in the field and on my computer, where I have sewed the photos of the drone of the algodones to create a large picture of the entire study area. I then look for composite dunes on the Martian surface made in images made by the context camera of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Scientists already know about the weather patterns of the earth, sand grain size and wind data. By measuring different parts of bed forms on both planets – such as their height, shape and distance – I can compare the similarities and differences of the bed forms to find instructions for the wind patterns, grains and atmosphere on Mars. Slowly but surely, while I listen to Studio Ghibli -soundtracks, I make the first database with composite dunes on Mars.
Developing this database is essential for the proposed human mission to Mars. Dust storms are common and some can surround the entire planet. Insight into aeolic bed forms will help scientists know where to place bases so that they are not buried by moving sand.
It is great to spend an afternoon with Ping-Pinging about a planet that is 140 million miles from us and to see a beautiful site while I try to answer questions about the composite dunes on Mars. How often do they occur? Where do they form? How do they relate to those on earth? I hope to answer these questions while I work to earn my Ph.D in geology.
This article is re -published of the conversation, a non -profit, independent news organization that gives you facts and reliable analysis to help you understand our complex world. It is written by: Lauren Berger, Texas A & M University
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Lauren Berger receives financing from NASA FINESST. Lauren Berger would like to recognize the help of her mentors Dr. Ryan Ewing (NASA Johnson Space Center), Dr. Marion Nachon (Texas A & M University) and Dr. Julia Reece (Texas A & M University).
