Skip to main content
Scientific American
  • Cart 0
  • Forgot password?Loading
    Not yet registered?
  • |Stay Informed
Advanced Search
  • Coronavirus
  • The Sciences
  • Mind
  • Health
  • Tech
  • Sustainability
  • Video
  • Podcasts
  • Opinion
  • Publications
  • Subscribe
  • Current Issue
  • Cart0
  • Sign In
  • Stay Informed
      • Share
      • Latest

      Swiss Cheese and Dust Devils: 7 High-Resolution Shots of Surface Activity on Mars [Slide Show]

      The Red Planet is frigid and possibly sterile, but its surface still sees plenty of action

      • Share on Facebook
      • Share on Twitter
      • Share on Reddit
      • Share on LinkedIn
      • Share via
      • Print
      Swiss Cheese and Dust Devils: 7 High-Resolution Shots of Surface Activity on Mars [Slide Show]
      Slideshow (7) images
      View
      Credits: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

      Swiss Cheese and Dust Devils: 7 High-Resolution Shots of Surface Activity on Mars [Slide Show]

        • Share
      • SPILLAGE: Before HiRISE scientists discovered recurring slope lineae in 2011 Martian gullies were perhaps the most convincing evidence for flowing liquid water on the Red Planet. The photograph above, taken in 2010, highlights in blue the areas within one system of gullies where surface material has eroded away or been deposited in the preceding year... NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
      • HOLE PUNCH: Mars’s surface is arid, for the most part, but just belowground lie stores of water ice. HiRISE has photographed numerous fresh craters, such as this 20-meter-wide basin, which have exposed and ejected ice from the subsurface... NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
      • TWISTER: The HiRISE camera snapped this shot of a towering dust devil crossing the northern hemisphere’s Amazonis Planitia in March 2012. By measuring the dust devil’s shadow and the angle of solar illumination, planetary scientists determined that the structure is some 20 kilometers tall, including the loose dust clouds atop the twister... NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
      • QUICKSAND: The HiRISE camera snapped this photo of sand dunes in Nili Patera, an ancient volcanic caldera near the Martian equator, in 2012. That same year a group of researchers published a study in Nature showing that the windblown Nili Patera dunes advance rapidly, at rates comparable to Earthly sand dunes in Antarctica... NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
      • Advertisement
      • HOLEY CAP: Mars’s south pole features an ice cap composed of both water ice and frozen carbon dioxide. In some places patches of carbon dioxide have sublimated into gas and escaped into the atmosphere, leaving behind odd-shaped depressions that lend such regions their colloquial description: “Swiss cheese terrain.” The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and its predecessors have documented rapid changes in these Swiss cheese depressions, some of which expand by a few meters per Martian year... NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
      • STREAKERS: Another animated gif of Newton Crater shows more RSL popping up in the southern hemisphere’s warmer seasons. The dark RSL are most prominent in the fourth frame of the gif (labeled “ESP_022689_1380”), taken during early to mid-summer, toward the top of the photograph... NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
      • TRICKLE-DOWN: This enhanced-color animated gif shows recurring slope lineae (RSL) inside Newton Crater on Mars, as photographed over time by the HiRISE camera onboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter... NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
      • Previous
      • Next
      of
      • View all
      • Link copied!
      • SPILLAGE:
      • HOLE PUNCH:
      • TWISTER:
      • QUICKSAND:
      • HOLEY CAP:
      • STREAKERS:
      • TRICKLE-DOWN:
      Advertisement
      Advertisement

      Newsletter

      Get smart. Sign up for our email newsletter.

      Sign Up

      Support Science Journalism

      Scientific American Space & Physics is a roundup of the most important stories about the universe and beyond

      Subscribe Now!Support Science Journalism

      Follow us

      • instagram
      • soundcloud
      • youtube
      • twitter
      • facebook
      • rss

      Scientific american arabic

      العربية
      • Return & Refund Policy
      • About
      • Press Room
      • FAQs
      • Contact Us
      • Site Map
      • Advertise
      • SA Custom Media
      • Terms of Use
      • Privacy Policy
      • California Consumer Privacy Statement
      • Use of cookies/Do not sell my data
      • International Editions
      Scientific American is part of Springer Nature, which owns or has commercial relations with thousands of scientific publications (many of them can be found at www.springernature.com/us). Scientific American maintains a strict policy of editorial independence in reporting developments in science to our readers.

      © 2021 Scientific American, a Division of Springer Nature America, Inc.

      All Rights Reserved.

      Scroll To Top

      You have free articles left.

      Temp Paywall Img

      Support our award-winning coverage of advances in science & technology.

      Already a subscriber? Sign in.

      Subscribers get more award-winning coverage of advances in science & technology.

      See Subscription Options