Sand Avalanches in Meroe Patera
Science Theme: Aeolian Processes

The sand falling into the crater and is trapped.
Observe the sand-coated crater wall, this reveals a surprise: several major sand flows slumped down into the crater (from the lower left), leaving small ridges (called “levees”) along their path and rounded piles of sand at the end. What caused these slumps?
Dry ice, which is thought to cause flows in some gullies and the North polar dunes, does not occur this close to the equator. It is most likely that these were dry flows, that might have been triggered by a Mars-quake or an unusually strong wind.

Acquisition date:         03 February 2015
Local Mars time:         14:33
Range to target site from satellite:    279.2 km (174.5 miles)
Original image scale:   27.9 cm/pixel so objects ~84 cm across are resolved North is up
Sun about 41° above the horizon
Northern Winter