USING MARS IMAGERY TO ILLUSTRATE AEOLIAN LANDFORMS IN AN INTRODUCTORY EARTH SCIENCE LABORATORY CLASS

Aeolian landforms are a standard part of the introductory Physical Geology lecture and laboratory course curriculum for majors and non-majors, but are often taught using illustrations rather than real data. Images of the aeolian landforms on Mars are ideally suited for this purpose since they provide high quality and resolution, are large in scale, and are unobstructed by vegetation or development.

For this laboratory activity, students will use USGS Map-a-Planet and PIGWAD GIS databases, which provide images from a variety of NASA missions in an easy to use web interface. To prepare for this activity, students should complete a lecture or background reading on aeolian processes and landforms and be familiar with accessing the NASA websites containing Mars imagery. The four parts of the exercise require the students to: (1) download and print out a global map of Mars that contains latitude and longitude coordinates from the USGS Map-a-Planet website; (2) print an 8 x 10 inch map of each area covering the aeolian landforms selected for study from the PIGWAD website; (3) plot the location of the aeolian landforms on the global map of Mars; and (4) identify the landform, prevailing wind direction, and other information determined by the instructor.

The activity may be expanded to include aeolian landforms on Earth for comparison if time permits. Maps may be prepared in advance by the instructor depending on the availability of computers and the technological skills of the students.