Image Shows Strange Tracks on Surface Click on any of the thumbnails below to download the full-sized JPEG images. Note that the two images on top are variations of the same new MOC image, and the larger image on the bottom is a Viking image to show contextual location.
Dust devils are a common occurrence in dry and desert landscapes on Earth as well as Mars.
They form when the ground heats up during the day, warming the air immediately above the surface. As the spinning column of air moves across the surface, it occasionally encounters dust on the surface, which it can suck upward. This dust rises into the spinning air, giving the appearance of a tornado-like column that moves across the landscape. Dust-devils rarely last long, since their very motion changes the conditions that allowed them to form in the first place. Mars Pathfinder detected the passage of several dust devils during its 83 days of operation on Mars in 1997.