This image shows a cross-section of ancient canyon systems in east Coprates Chasma, and displays several orders and generations of wind-driven dunes and ripples, also called bedforms. Some areas display more modern bedforms, often termed mega-ripples, which have likely been active over long timescales and have migrated in the recent past.

Other areas along the canyon wall have larger bedforms that show a very different appearance. Although they have a spacing that would make them similar to typical Martian sand dunes, many display superposed craters, indicating they have not migrated for a very long time, possibly hundreds of thousands of years.

ID: ESP_052737_1645
date: 26 October 2017
altitude: 261 km

https://uahirise.org/hipod/ESP_052737_1645
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
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