Mars is the only other planet on which we have identified wind-shaped (_eolian_) features. Although its surface atmospheric pressure is only about one-hundredth that of Earth, global circulation patterns on Mars have formed a circumpolar sand sea of more than five million square kilometers, an area greater than the Empty Quarter of Saudi Arabia, the largest sand sea on our planet. Martian sand seas consist predominantly of crescent-shaped dunes on plains near the perennial ice cap of the north polar area. Smaller dune fields occupy the floors of many large craters in the polar regions.
[Illustration: This Viking spacecraft image of Mars shows alternating layers of ice and windblown dust near the north polar cap. Annual and other periodic climatic changes due to orbit fluctuations may occur on Mars (courtesy of USGS Image Processing Facility, Flagstaff, Arizona).]
[Illustration: One of the first images taken at the Viking 2 landing site on Mars shows the pink sky over Utopia and the desert pavement on the ground (courtesy of NASA).]
[Illustration: Some of the crescent-shaped dunes in this Viking image of Mars are more than a kilometer wide. The dark material that streaks from the horn-shaped features may be dust recently blown from the dunes (courtesy of NASA).]
[Illustration: Natural Bridge, Arches National Monument, Utah (photograph by Peter Kresan).]
Sand covers only about 20 percent of the Earth's deserts. Most of the sand is in sand sheets and sand seas--vast regions of undulating dunes resembling ocean waves "frozen" in an instant of time.
Nearly 50 percent of desert surfaces are plains where eolian deflation--removal of fine-grained material by the wind--has exposed loose gravels consisting predominantly of pebbles but with occasional cobbles.
The remaining surfaces of arid lands are composed of exposed bedrock outcrops, desert soils, and fluvial deposits including alluvial fans, playas, desert lakes, and oases. Bedrock outcrops commonly occur as small mountains surrounded by extensive erosional plains.
Oases are vegetated areas moistened by springs, wells, or by irrigation. Many are artificial. Oases are often the only places in deserts that support crops and permanent habitation.