Tag Archives: Burrowing

Strange, sinuous gullies etched into the dunes of Mars are finally giving up their secrets. These gouges, new experiments reveal, are carved by the explosive sublimation of dry ice, burrowing down the slopes like a mole and blasting away sand as it goes. The new results finally account for all the curious features of Mars’ mysterious squiggles. “It felt like …

For decades, scientists have scoured Mars for traces of life—from ancient riverbeds to lake basins and channels that hinted at the planet’s wetter past. Now, new research suggests that something eerily lifelike may be reshaping the planet’s surface—giant blocks of dry ice that seem to “burrow” through dunes almost like living organisms. According to a new study published in Geophysical …