Nili Patera dune field

It is located on top of a lava bed, at the site of an ancient volcano, the Nili Patera caldera of Syrtis Major, near the Martian equator,[1] and it is one of the most active dune fields of Mars.

[2] It is being actively studied by the HiRISE camera, on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, at the rate of one image every six weeks.

[7] Such movement mechanism is called saltation and it has been determined that the dunes at Nili Patera, under the existing wind conditions, are active and moving as a unit.

These high winds occur very rarely on Mars, but because of the thinner atmosphere and lower gravity of the planet, sand grains, once in motion, can move faster and to a longer distance than on Earth.

[6] In a paper published in the journal Nature, NASA scientists report that they have detected motion of Nili Patera dunes up to a height of 200 feet (61 m) as "coherent units across the Martian landscape".

[6][11] These discoveries have led to increased understanding of the role the wind plays in erosion phenomena of the Martian landscape.