24 November 2008

Mars Art: Dunes in Abalos Undae

Posted by Ryan Anderson

This week’s Mars Art is a HiRISE view of Dunes in Abalos Undae. Pictures of sand dunes taken by HiRISE never get old for me. There is something about the undulating, regular shapes of dunes that is fascinating and beautiful and peaceful. There is a great quote about dunes in the book “Physics of Blown Sand and Desert Dunes” by R.A. Bagnold that goes on quite poetically about them, but unfortunately I don’t have it close at hand. Consider this an IOU. which Briony has posted below! Meanwhile, enjoy the picture, and read more about it here.

psp_010219_2785_irbnomapbrowsecrop

Update from Briony: Here’s an awesome Bagnold quote, hopefully the one that Ryan was referring to:

In places vast accumulations of sand weighing millions of tons move inexorably, in regular formation, over the surface of the country, growing, retaining their shape, even breeding, in a manner which, by its grotesque imitation of life, is vaguely disturbing to an imaginative mind.
~ Bagnold (1941)