It looks like just one more boulder track.

Those tracks are visible on some photos from HiRISE, there is even one photo with more than ten of those tracks.

You can see that there is also a smaller track to the left of the one you found.

Its just so regular and neat that it caught my eye. You know no breaks / bounces / fractured track just plod plod plod regular as clock work...


Cheers for that super high zoom cut out, my poor laptop don't have any great software on it

Its either incredibly quick or the 'dirt' it moves never gets blown about or scuffed by 'dirt devils' as the tracks seem to go on a good bit. Would the rock have fallen from a mountain and rolled through the desert or has this movement taken place over a longer time frame of weeks/months/years?

Thats what got me.

If it was over time then the tracks would of been erased by the wind. A fast roll I would of thought (and i have seen thousands of rock / ice / mud falls in mountains and hills) would of bounced in an irregular pattern.

Which ever it is it just caught my eye and i thought id share.

just a thought.

If its so neat a trail and yet so irregular in shape, how the hell did it go in such a straight line ? I love the net, its a great stimulant for the mind.

[edit on 1-6-2008 by Dan Tanna]

From what I have seen, although the winds on Mars are fast, the fact that the atmosphere is thinner makes them weaker than the winds on Earth, so they move less sand than "our" winds, so those tracks can be older than they should be to look like that on Earth.

And an irregular object can move in a straight line if part of the irregularities make them move to the right and the other part make it move to the left, the sum of the movements make it move in a straight line.

The pattern suggests the rock is either rolling or shuffling along can you tell how sloped the land is there?

Originally posted by ArMaP
From what I have seen, although the winds on Mars are fast, the fact that the atmosphere is thinner makes them weaker than the winds on Earth, so they move less sand than "our" winds, so those tracks can be older than they should be to look like that on Earth.

And an irregular object can move in a straight line if part of the irregularities make them move to the right and the other part make it move to the left, the sum of the movements make it move in a straight line.

You know, I just had a moment of clarity reading your post. Thank you. Its late, and i got excited, what can i say ?

Well this rolling stone wont be gathering moss! lol

Can you tell:
How big is the bolder?
How long a track it makes?

I notice it makes a pattern as it goes, one elongated indentation, then 2 smaller ones, repeated. Which means the rock is turning over as it moves in the same fashion each time.