cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/13425339
Those aren’t impact craters?
this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2024
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The sand is black sand, and the white lines are the remnants of frost leftover on the surface of the black sand. The dunes are free of the frost remnants, because they are slowly moving. This means we can fully see the color of the black sand, which plays with visual perspective. Here's the same area in an earlier photo when it was completely all frosted over: https://static.uahirise.org/images/2023/details/cut/ESP_076510_2230-2.jpg
Nope. They are a type of dune known as a dome dune. You can see the dune lip on the southern side, which gives you information on wind direction (North to South in this case).
The liquid-like behavior is striking.
Like condensated droplets of water on a surface.