A roughly 3.5-mile high Martian mound that scientists
suspect preserves evidence of a massive lake might actually have formed as a
result of the Red Planet's famously dusty atmosphere, an analysis of the
mound's features suggests. If correct, the research could dilute expectations
that the mound holds evidence of a large body of water, which would have
important implications for understanding Mars' past habitability.
Researchers based at Princeton University and the California
Institute of Technology suggest that the mound, known as Mount Sharp, most
likely emerged as strong winds carried dust and sand into the 96-mile-wide
crater in which the mound sits. They report in the journal Geology that air
likely rises out of the massive Gale Crater when the Martian surface warms
during the day, then sweeps back down its steep walls at night. Though strong
along the Gale Crater walls, these "slope winds" would have died down
at the crater's center where the fine dust in the air settled and accumulated
to eventually form Mount Sharp, which is close in size to Alaska's Mt.
McKinley.