Photographer Mikko Lagerstedt specializes in Nordic landscapes, like the windswept snow seen here. I love the way he’s captured the snow that gets picked up and blown by the wind. Keep reading
Tag: saltation
Unifying Sediment Transport Theory
On windy days, streaks of snowflakes snake in the air above a mountaintop snowfield. And when snorkeling in the surf, you can watch the inbound waves sculpt underwater ripples in Keep reading
Dust Envelopes Mars
Day has turned into night for NASA’s Opportunity rover as a massive dust storm envelopes Mars. The first signs of the dust storm were reported May 30th, and over the Keep reading
An Armored Bed
A river’s flow constantly changes its underlying bed. The rocks and particulates beneath a flowing river can typically be divided into two zones: an upper layer called the bed-load zone Keep reading
Martian Ripples
Earth and Mars both feature fields of giant sand dunes. The huge dunes are shaped by the wind and miniature avalanches of sand, and their surface is marked by small Keep reading
Sand Ripples in Tidal Flats
Sand, winds, and waves can interact to form remarkable and complex patterns. These sand ripples from the tidal flats of Cape Cod are a testament to such interactions. When a Keep reading
Snowy Deserts
Windblown snow bears a certain resemblance to desert sands or a Martian landscape. Many of the same aeolian processes–like erosion, transport, and deposition–take place in each. The animation above shows Keep reading
Barchan Dunes
Crescent-shaped barchan dunes are common on both Earth (top image) and Mars (bottom image). They form in areas where the wind comes predominantly from one direction. As the wind blows, Keep reading
Engineering Sediment Transport
Sediment transport via fluid motion is a major factor in engineering, geology, and ecology. This video shows two common forms of sediment transport: particle suspension and saltation. Suspension, in which Keep reading