This image was acquired on January 2, 2014 by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Dune fields located among canyon wall slopes are also known as “wall dune fields.” On Earth and Mars, these types of dunes are largely controlled by what is called “microtopography.” Physical obstacles can accelerate and decelerate airflow, create turbulence, potentially enhancing erosion, deposition, and/or transport of dune sediment.
This class of dune morphology is relatively rare across Mars. However, they are frequently located among the walls in the Melas and Coprates chasmata.
Additional information: ESP_053739_1650, Digital terrain map
This is a stereo pair with ESP_035278_1655.
The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona