Scholarlink

<p>Sand ripples record interactions between planetary surfaces and environmental flows, providing paleoenvironmental archives when preserved into rocks. Two main ripple types form in sand: drag ripples, common in water, and impact ripples, exclusive to windblown surfaces. Enigmatic meter-scale aeolian ripples on Mars have been assumed to be impact ripples, though ground and orbiter-based observations suggest they may be drag ripples instead. Here, we report on low-pressure wind tunnel experiments in which large ripples formed and evolved from a flat bed. Observations demonstrate that impact and large ripples grow from distinct mechanisms. Large-ripple size aligns with predictions from drag-ripple theory, and associated sand fluxes are greater than predicted for impact ripples. These findings are inconsistent with an impact-ripple origin and instead suggest that large martian ripples are drag ripples. Windblown drag ripples constitute an untapped record of atmospheric evolution on planetary bodies with tenuous or ephemeral atmospheres across the Solar System.</p>

错误：搜索内容不能为空，请输入英文关键词
错误：关键词超出字数限制，请精简
高级检索

Ripples formed in low-pressure wind tunnels suggest Mars’s large windblown ripples are not impact ripples

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

    开放获取

  • 发表日期：

    2025年3月26日

查看全文
  • Carlos A. Alvarez,
  • Mathieu G. A. Lapôtre,
  • Christy Swann,
  • Ryan C. Ewing

摘要

Sand ripples record interactions between planetary surfaces and environmental flows, providing paleoenvironmental archives when preserved into rocks. Two main ripple types form in sand: drag ripples, common in water, and impact ripples, exclusive to windblown surfaces. Enigmatic meter-scale aeolian ripples on Mars have been assumed to be impact ripples, though ground and orbiter-based observations suggest they may be drag ripples instead. Here, we report on low-pressure wind tunnel experiments in which large ripples formed and evolved from a flat bed. Observations demonstrate that impact and large ripples grow from distinct mechanisms. Large-ripple size aligns with predictions from drag-ripple theory, and associated sand fluxes are greater than predicted for impact ripples. These findings are inconsistent with an impact-ripple origin and instead suggest that large martian ripples are drag ripples. Windblown drag ripples constitute an untapped record of atmospheric evolution on planetary bodies with tenuous or ephemeral atmospheres across the Solar System.