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fork(2) [soylentnews.org] writes:

      An unusual type of wind-blown sand ripple has been discovered on Mars. From Astronomy [astronomy.com] magazine:

Utilizing NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover, Mathieu Lapotre, a PhD Candidate in Planetary Geology at California Institute of Technology, and his team discovered the new sand using data from the Mast Camera and Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on Curiosity and the High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) on the orbiter. Two types of wind ripples occur naturally on Earth's deserts; small ripples and large dunes says Lapotre.

      "Modern Mars has one additional bedform type: decimeter-scale ripples, meter-scale ripples, and large dunes," says Lapotre. "It is the intermediate size bedform that appears to be foreign to terrestrial landscapes."

      [...]

      As the density of the Martian atmosphere predicts the size and spacing of the wind-blown ripples, the team's findings may infer past atmospheric conditions on Mars. In 2007, NASA's Opportunity rover found sandstone at the Burns Formation, a geologic formation on Burns Cliff, that possessed these wind-drag ripples.

      [...]

      "A more complete and continuous record of wind-blown sandstones covering the duration of Mars' atmospheric decline would enable planetary geologists to better understand what made Mars the barren planet we know today," says Lapotre.

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