The plains of Meridiani Planum, where the Opportunity Rover is currently exploring, is home to many surface features, but none are as stunning and the wind-formed dunes and ripples. How do these features form, and what significance do they have on the overall climate and history of Mars? The SETI Institute’s Lori Fention, an aeolian geomorphologist, joins Jake to talk all about these sandy structures and share the beauty of their past and present.

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Below: Dunes, TARs then Ripples.

WeMartians music is “RetroFuture”, “Electrodoodle” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/