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louis

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2008-03-24

Posts: 7,208

Fascinating Facts About Mars

Here's my fascinating fact about Mars:

The dust that coats much of the surface of Mars originates largely from a single thousand-kilometer-long geological formation near the Red Planet's equator,  called the Medusae Fossae Formation (to the south west of Olympus Mons).

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2 … 120854.htm

It's incredible to think that nearly all that dust, which can obscure the whole planet, comes from one relatively small location.

Does anyone else have a "fascinating fact"?

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RobertDyck

Moderator

From: Winnipeg, Canada

Registered: 2002-08-20

Posts: 7,932

Website

Re: Fascinating Facts About Mars

My "fascinating facts" would be boring, because everyone on this forum has heard them.

But there is a parallel to Earth. A basin in the Sahara Desert creates copious quantities of dust. The Bodélé Depression, a dried lake bed in northeastern Chad. Every day, dust devils form that raise dust into the air. That dust rises high into the atmosphere, carried across the Atlantic. Rain causes that dust to precipitate out. Click the image below for an article, which talks about dust falling on the Caribbean and Texas. However...

...much of that dust rains into the Amazon Forest. The dust fertilizes and feeds the tropical rain forest. Here is another article from NASA.
Bodele Depression Dust Feeds Amazon

louis

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2008-03-24

Posts: 7,208

Re: Fascinating Facts About Mars

Well that is a "fascinating fact" even if it doesn't relate directly to Mars!

My "fascinating facts" would be boring, because everyone on this forum has heard them.

But there is a parallel to Earth. A basin in the Sahara Desert creates copious quantities of dust. The Bodélé Depression, a dried lake bed in northeastern Chad. Every day, dust devils form that raise dust into the air. That dust rises high into the atmosphere, carried across the Atlantic. Rain causes that dust to precipitate out. Click the image below for an article, which talks about dust falling on the Caribbean and Texas. However...
https://eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/92000/92358/dust_geo_2018179.png

...much of that dust rains into the Amazon Forest. The dust fertilizes and feeds the tropical rain forest. Here is another article from NASA.
Bodele Depression Dust Feeds Amazon

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Let's Go to Mars...Google on: Fast Track to Mars blogspot.com