Public domain
North Polar Gypsum Dunes in Olympia Undae
From the collection of NASA Image and Video Library. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
These sand dunes are a type of aeolian bedform and partly encircle the Martian North Pole in a region called Olympia Undae. Unlike most of the sand dunes on Mars that are made of the volcanic rock basalt, these are made of a type of sulfate mineral called gypsum. Whence the sand? Well, gypsum is a mineral that can often form from the evaporation of water that has sulfur and calcium dissolved in it. This sand was probably sourced from a northern region on Mars that used to be quite wet.
NASA Image and Video Library’s own descriptionCredit lineNorth Polar Gypsum Dunes in Olympia Undae. NASA/JPL, 2016-07-15. Public domain. ID: PIA20743.
