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Brazos Valles Dunes

Sept. 8, 2003
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows an area of light-toned, wind-blown, ripple-like bedforms spotted in the Brazos Valles near Schiaparelli Basin on Mars.

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-476, 7 September 2003

Nearly six years ago, when the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) was taking some of its earliest high resolution images of the planet, an area of light-toned, wind-blown, ripple-like bedforms was spotted in the Brazos Valles near Schiaparelli Basin. These features were highlighted on November 10, 1997, in "Valley and Surrounding Terrain Adjacent to Schiaparelli Crater."

This picture shows a close-up view of some of the light-toned bedforms first visible in that early MOC image. This picture was acquired at full resolution (1.5 meters--5 feet--per pixel). The image shows that the light-toned bedforms are not fresh, young features; they are jagged and roughened, as if they have been indurated (cemented) and then somewhat eroded by wind. This picture is located near 5.4°S, 340.6°W; it covers an area 1.1 km (0.7 mi) across. The scene is illuminated by sunlight from the left.

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