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[electrobleme]

How to ignore what you can see

Martian Dust Devils are amazingly electrical. Look at any image of the base of Mars Dust Devils and you will see blinding white flashing light like an arc welder gives off when it is discharging.





Martian Dust Devils also leave a black burnt trail after them, like the ground has been burnt or transformed. In the image below the swirling black marks are created by Dust Devils. But in this image you can also see very puzzling black streak marks going up or down the sides of the sand dunes.

What could cause the blackness on the sand dunes?

Intersecting swirling trails left by the earlier passage of dust devils across sand dunes, as they lifted lighter reddish-pink dust and exposed the darker material below. Also visible are darker slope streaks along dune edges, formed by a process which is still under investigation.
Mars Dust Devils trails and mysterious black streaks on the sand dunes

You can see how on the top left sand dune there is a black trail having gone over it that appears to not be stopped or covered over by the sand dune. So either an electrical discharge has created all the blackness or the dunes have somehow got the same blackness a fraction below there surfaces.



But what of the large black area at the bottom of the picture? Is it an older or more general electrical discharge event that has happened or is happening slowly now?

Mars electrical Dust Devils article