Dry Debris, Not Water, Caused Recent Flows on Mars

A dry landslide—not liquid water—is the most likely explanation for at least one of the bright streaks seen recently on Mars, a new study concludes, according to National Geographic News Service. The streaks first made waves in 2006, when scientists reported them in pictures of Martian gullies taken in 2005. According to Reuters, the scientists ran computer simulations of what conditions might have caused such a formation. Flows of liquid water did not really match the formation in the computer models but flows of dry, granular material like sand and gravel matched it almost perfectly, they reported in the journal Geology.