Large-scale crossbedding in the sandstone of this ridge on a lower slope of Mars’ Mount Sharp is typical of windblown sand dunes that have petrified. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Some of the dark sandstone in an area being explored by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover shows texture and inclined bedding structures characteristic of deposits that formed as sand dunes, then cemented into rock. This sandstone outcrop, part of a geological layer that Curiosity’s science team calls the Stimson unit, has a structure called crossbedding on a large scale that is interpreted as deposits of sand dunes formed by wind.
Similar-looking petrified sand dunes are common in the U.S. Southwest...
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