A lower-than-expected saltation threshold at Martian pressure and below.

ABSTRACT: Aeolian sediment transport is observed to occur on Mars as well as other extraterrestrial environments, generating ripples and dunes as on Earth. The search for terrestrial analogs of planetary bedforms, as well as environmental simulation experiments able to reproduce their formation in planetary conditions, are powerful ways to question our understanding of geomorphological processes toward unusual environmental conditions. Here, we perform sediment transport laboratory experiments in a closed-circuit wind tunnel placed in a vacuum chamber and operated at extremely low pressures to show that Martian conditions belong to a previously unexplored saltation regime. The threshold wind speed required to initiate saltation is only quantitatively predicted by state-of-the art models up to a dens

SUBMITTER: Andreotti B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7865126 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature