Geologist, sedimentation expert and Mars Science Laboratory team member David Rubin of the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center investigates longitudinal dunes in China's Qaidam Basin. He comments: "The landscape has some similarity with Mars: almost total lack of vegetation and wind-formed landscape."
David M Rubin
Scientist Emeritus, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center
Science and Products
Modeling surface gravity waves on a schematized ancient lake on Mars
This data release provides a wave model application and wave parameters derived from simulations of a schematized ancient lake on Mars. The phase-averaged wave model, SWAN, was applied within the Delft3D modeling system (Deltares, 2018) with reduced gravity and a range of atmospheric densities and wind speeds to simulate potential conditions that could generate wind waves on Mars. Wave modeling pr
Measurements of bed grain size on the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona - 2000 to 2014
These data were compiled to better understand sedimentation patterns on the bed of the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park, and the way these patterns relate to suspended sediment grain size and concentration. These data were collected by the US Geological Survey Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center from 2000 to 2014, primarily using the "Flying Eyeball" underwater imaging system.
Digital seafloor images and sediment grain size from the mouth of the Columbia River, Oregon and Washington, 2014
Geo-referenced digital imagery of in-situ seafloor sediments in the mouth of the Columbia River was collected and analyzed to determine median grain size of the surface sediments. Digital imagery of the seafloor was collected with a flying eyeball (Rubin and others, 2007) from the R/V Parke Snavely from September 11 to September 13, 2014 (USGS Field Activity 2014-642-FA). The flying eyeball consis
China's Qaidam Basin Landscape Similar with Mars
Geologist, sedimentation expert and Mars Science Laboratory team member David Rubin of the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center investigates longitudinal dunes in China's Qaidam Basin. He comments: "The landscape has some similarity with Mars: almost total lack of vegetation and wind-formed landscape."
Filter Total Items: 59
Ancient Martian aeolian processes and palaeomorphology reconstructed from the Stimson formation on the lower slope of Aeolis Mons, Gale crater, Mars
Reconstruction of the palaeoenvironmental context of Martian sedimentary rocks is central to studies of ancient Martian habitability and regional palaeoclimate history. This paper reports the analysis of a distinct aeolian deposit preserved in Gale crater, Mars, and evaluates its palaeomorphology, the processes responsible for its deposition, and its implications for Gale crater geological history
Authors
Steve G. Banham, Sanjeev Gupta, David M. Rubin, Jessica A. Watkins, Dawn Y. Sumner, Kenneth S. Edgett, John P. Grotzinger, Kevin W. Lewis, Lauren A. Edgar, Kathryn M. Stack, Robert Barnes, James F. Bell, Mackenzie D. Day, Ryan C. Ewing, Mathieu G.A. Lapotre, Nathan T. Stein, Frances Rivera-Hernández, Ashwin R. Vasavada
Planetary dune workshop expands to include subaqueous processes
Dune-like structures appear in the depths of Earth’s oceans, across its landscapes, and in the extremities of the solar system beyond. Dunes rise up under the thick dense atmosphere of Venus, and they have been found under the almost unimaginably ephemeral atmosphere of a comet.
Authors
Timothy N. Titus, Gerald Bryant, David M. Rubin
The sand dunes of the Colorado River, Grand Canyon, USA
The flow (Wright and Kaplinski, 2011), suspended sediment transport (Topping et al., 2000), sediment storage (Grams et al., 2013), and sedimentology of sandbars (Rubin et al., 1998) of the 250 miles of the Colorado River that run through Grand Canyon National Park have been well studied and described. However, there has been little systematic or synoptic description of the morphologies and sedimen
Authors
Daniel Buscombe, Matthew Kaplinski, Paul E. Grams, Thomas Ashley, Brandon McElroy, David M. Rubin
Shaler: in situ analysis of a fluvial sedimentary deposit on Mars
This paper characterizes the detailed sedimentology of a fluvial sandbody on Mars for the first time and interprets its depositional processes and palaeoenvironmental setting. Despite numerous orbital observations of fluvial landforms on the surface of Mars, ground-based characterization of the sedimentology of such fluvial deposits has not previously been possible. Results from the NASA Mars Scie
Authors
Lauren A. Edgar, Sanjeev Gupta, David M. Rubin, Kevin W. Lewis, Gary A. Kocurek, Ryan Anderson, James F. Bell, Gilles Dromart, Kenneth S. Edgett, John P. Grotzinger, Craig Hardgrove, Linda C. Kah, Richard A. LeVeille, Michael C. Malin, Nicholas Mangold, Ralph E. Milliken, Michelle Minitti, Marisa C. Palucis, Melissa Rice, Scott K. Rowland, Juergen Schieber, Kathryn M. Stack, Dawn Y. Sumner, Roger C. Wiens, Rebecca M.E. Williams, Amy J. Williams
Fluidized-sediment pipes in Gale crater, Mars, and possible Earth analogs
Since landing in Gale crater, the Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity has traversed fluvial, lacustrine, and eolian sedimentary rocks that were deposited within the crater ∼3.6 to 3.2 b.y. ago. Here we describe structures interpreted to be pipes formed by vertical movement of fluidized sediment. Like many pipes on Earth, those in Gale crater are more resistant to erosion than the host rock; th
Authors
David M. Rubin, A.G. Fairen, J. Frydenvang, O. Gasnault, Guy R. Gelfenbaum, W. Goetz, J.P. Grotzinger, S. Le Mouélic, N. Mangold, H. Newsom, D. Z. Oehler, W. Rapin, J. Schieber, R. C. Wiens
Hydroacoustic signatures of Colorado Riverbed sediments in Marble and Grand Canyons using multibeam sonar
Characterizing the large-scale sedimentary make-up of heterogeneous riverbeds (Nelson et al., 2014), which consist of a patchwork of sediment types over small scales (less than one to several tens of meters) (Dietrich and Smith, 1984) requires high resolution measurements of sediment grain size. Capturing such variability with conventional physical (e.g. grabs, cores, and dredges) or underwater ph
Authors
Daniel D. Buscombe, Paul E. Grams, Matthew Kaplinski, Robert B. Tusso, David M. Rubin
Building sandbars in the Grand Canyon
In 1963, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation finished building Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River in northern Arizona, 25 kilometers upstream from Grand Canyon National Park. The dam impounded 300 kilometers of the Colorado River, creating Lake Powell, the nation’s second largest reservoir.
By 1974, scientists found that the downstream river’s alluvial sandbars were erod
Authors
Paul E. Grams, John C. Schmidt, Scott Wright, David Topping, Theodore S. Melis, David M. Rubin
Autonomous bed-sediment imaging-systems for revealing temporal variability of grain size
We describe a remotely operated video microscope system, designed to provide high-resolution images of seabed sediments. Two versions were developed, which differ in how they raise the camera from the seabed. The first used hydraulics and the second used the energy associated with wave orbital motion. Images were analyzed using automated frequency-domain methods, which following a rigorous partial
Authors
Daniel Buscombe, David M. Rubin, Jessica R. Lacy, Curt D. Storlazzi, Gerald Hatcher, Henry Chezar, Robert Wyland, Christopher R. Sherwood
Assessing grain-size correspondence between flow and deposits of controlled floods in the Colorado River, USA
Flood-deposited sediment has been used to decipher environmental parameters such as variability in watershed sediment supply, paleoflood hydrology, and channel morphology. It is not well known, however, how accurately the deposits reflect sedimentary processes within the flow, and hence what sampling intensity is needed to decipher records of recent or long-past conditions. We examine these proble
Authors
Amy Draut, David M. Rubin
Origin and lateral migration of linear dunes in the Qaidam Basin of NW China revealed by dune sediments, internal structures, and optically stimulated luminescence ages, with implications for linear dunes on Titan: discussion
Zhou et al. (2012) proposed that longitudinal dunes in the Qaidam Basin, China, formed like yardangs: by erosion into sediment that was not deposited by those dunes. Because erosion occurs on the upwind flanks of most migrating dunes (Rubin and Hunter, 1982, 1985), the key to demonstrating a yardang-like origin is to show that the dunes did not deposit the strata that they contain. Zhou et al. mad
Authors
David M. Rubin, Alan M. Rubin
Summary of the Third International Planetary Dunes Workshop: remote sensing and image analysis of planetary dunes
The Third International Planetary Dunes Workshop took place in Flagstaff, AZ, USA during June 12–15, 2012. This meeting brought together a diverse group of researchers to discuss recent advances in terrestrial and planetary research on aeolian bedforms. The workshop included two and a half days of oral and poster presentations, as well as one formal (and one informal) full-day field trip. Similar
Authors
Lori K. Fenton, Rosalyn K. Hayward, Briony H.N. Horgan, David M. Rubin, Timothy N. Titus, Mark A. Bishop, Devon M. Burr, Matthew Chojnacki, Cynthia L. Dinwiddie, Laura Kerber, Alice Le Gall, Timothy I. Michaels, Lynn D.V. Neakrase, Claire E. Newman, Daniela Tirsch, Hezi Yizhaq, James R. Zimbelman
Currents, drag, and sediment transport induced by a tsunami
We report observations of water surface elevation, currents, and suspended sediment concentration (SSC) from a 10-m deep site on the inner shelf in northern Monterey Bay during the arrival of the 2010 Chile tsunami. Velocity profiles were measured from 3.5 m above the bed (mab) to the surface at 2 min intervals, and from 0.1 to 0.7 mab at 1 Hz. SSC was determined from the acoustic backscatter of t
Authors
Jessica R. Lacy, David M. Rubin, Daniel Buscombe
Science and Products
Modeling surface gravity waves on a schematized ancient lake on Mars
This data release provides a wave model application and wave parameters derived from simulations of a schematized ancient lake on Mars. The phase-averaged wave model, SWAN, was applied within the Delft3D modeling system (Deltares, 2018) with reduced gravity and a range of atmospheric densities and wind speeds to simulate potential conditions that could generate wind waves on Mars. Wave modeling pr
Measurements of bed grain size on the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona - 2000 to 2014
These data were compiled to better understand sedimentation patterns on the bed of the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park, and the way these patterns relate to suspended sediment grain size and concentration. These data were collected by the US Geological Survey Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center from 2000 to 2014, primarily using the "Flying Eyeball" underwater imaging system.
Digital seafloor images and sediment grain size from the mouth of the Columbia River, Oregon and Washington, 2014
Geo-referenced digital imagery of in-situ seafloor sediments in the mouth of the Columbia River was collected and analyzed to determine median grain size of the surface sediments. Digital imagery of the seafloor was collected with a flying eyeball (Rubin and others, 2007) from the R/V Parke Snavely from September 11 to September 13, 2014 (USGS Field Activity 2014-642-FA). The flying eyeball consis
China's Qaidam Basin Landscape Similar with Mars
Geologist, sedimentation expert and Mars Science Laboratory team member David Rubin of the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center investigates longitudinal dunes in China's Qaidam Basin. He comments: "The landscape has some similarity with Mars: almost total lack of vegetation and wind-formed landscape."
Geologist, sedimentation expert and Mars Science Laboratory team member David Rubin of the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center investigates longitudinal dunes in China's Qaidam Basin. He comments: "The landscape has some similarity with Mars: almost total lack of vegetation and wind-formed landscape."
Filter Total Items: 59
Ancient Martian aeolian processes and palaeomorphology reconstructed from the Stimson formation on the lower slope of Aeolis Mons, Gale crater, Mars
Reconstruction of the palaeoenvironmental context of Martian sedimentary rocks is central to studies of ancient Martian habitability and regional palaeoclimate history. This paper reports the analysis of a distinct aeolian deposit preserved in Gale crater, Mars, and evaluates its palaeomorphology, the processes responsible for its deposition, and its implications for Gale crater geological history
Authors
Steve G. Banham, Sanjeev Gupta, David M. Rubin, Jessica A. Watkins, Dawn Y. Sumner, Kenneth S. Edgett, John P. Grotzinger, Kevin W. Lewis, Lauren A. Edgar, Kathryn M. Stack, Robert Barnes, James F. Bell, Mackenzie D. Day, Ryan C. Ewing, Mathieu G.A. Lapotre, Nathan T. Stein, Frances Rivera-Hernández, Ashwin R. Vasavada
Planetary dune workshop expands to include subaqueous processes
Dune-like structures appear in the depths of Earth’s oceans, across its landscapes, and in the extremities of the solar system beyond. Dunes rise up under the thick dense atmosphere of Venus, and they have been found under the almost unimaginably ephemeral atmosphere of a comet.
Authors
Timothy N. Titus, Gerald Bryant, David M. Rubin
The sand dunes of the Colorado River, Grand Canyon, USA
The flow (Wright and Kaplinski, 2011), suspended sediment transport (Topping et al., 2000), sediment storage (Grams et al., 2013), and sedimentology of sandbars (Rubin et al., 1998) of the 250 miles of the Colorado River that run through Grand Canyon National Park have been well studied and described. However, there has been little systematic or synoptic description of the morphologies and sedimen
Authors
Daniel Buscombe, Matthew Kaplinski, Paul E. Grams, Thomas Ashley, Brandon McElroy, David M. Rubin
Shaler: in situ analysis of a fluvial sedimentary deposit on Mars
This paper characterizes the detailed sedimentology of a fluvial sandbody on Mars for the first time and interprets its depositional processes and palaeoenvironmental setting. Despite numerous orbital observations of fluvial landforms on the surface of Mars, ground-based characterization of the sedimentology of such fluvial deposits has not previously been possible. Results from the NASA Mars Scie
Authors
Lauren A. Edgar, Sanjeev Gupta, David M. Rubin, Kevin W. Lewis, Gary A. Kocurek, Ryan Anderson, James F. Bell, Gilles Dromart, Kenneth S. Edgett, John P. Grotzinger, Craig Hardgrove, Linda C. Kah, Richard A. LeVeille, Michael C. Malin, Nicholas Mangold, Ralph E. Milliken, Michelle Minitti, Marisa C. Palucis, Melissa Rice, Scott K. Rowland, Juergen Schieber, Kathryn M. Stack, Dawn Y. Sumner, Roger C. Wiens, Rebecca M.E. Williams, Amy J. Williams
Fluidized-sediment pipes in Gale crater, Mars, and possible Earth analogs
Since landing in Gale crater, the Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity has traversed fluvial, lacustrine, and eolian sedimentary rocks that were deposited within the crater ∼3.6 to 3.2 b.y. ago. Here we describe structures interpreted to be pipes formed by vertical movement of fluidized sediment. Like many pipes on Earth, those in Gale crater are more resistant to erosion than the host rock; th
Authors
David M. Rubin, A.G. Fairen, J. Frydenvang, O. Gasnault, Guy R. Gelfenbaum, W. Goetz, J.P. Grotzinger, S. Le Mouélic, N. Mangold, H. Newsom, D. Z. Oehler, W. Rapin, J. Schieber, R. C. Wiens
Hydroacoustic signatures of Colorado Riverbed sediments in Marble and Grand Canyons using multibeam sonar
Characterizing the large-scale sedimentary make-up of heterogeneous riverbeds (Nelson et al., 2014), which consist of a patchwork of sediment types over small scales (less than one to several tens of meters) (Dietrich and Smith, 1984) requires high resolution measurements of sediment grain size. Capturing such variability with conventional physical (e.g. grabs, cores, and dredges) or underwater ph
Authors
Daniel D. Buscombe, Paul E. Grams, Matthew Kaplinski, Robert B. Tusso, David M. Rubin
Building sandbars in the Grand Canyon
In 1963, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation finished building Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River in northern Arizona, 25 kilometers upstream from Grand Canyon National Park. The dam impounded 300 kilometers of the Colorado River, creating Lake Powell, the nation’s second largest reservoir.
By 1974, scientists found that the downstream river’s alluvial sandbars were erod
Authors
Paul E. Grams, John C. Schmidt, Scott Wright, David Topping, Theodore S. Melis, David M. Rubin
Autonomous bed-sediment imaging-systems for revealing temporal variability of grain size
We describe a remotely operated video microscope system, designed to provide high-resolution images of seabed sediments. Two versions were developed, which differ in how they raise the camera from the seabed. The first used hydraulics and the second used the energy associated with wave orbital motion. Images were analyzed using automated frequency-domain methods, which following a rigorous partial
Authors
Daniel Buscombe, David M. Rubin, Jessica R. Lacy, Curt D. Storlazzi, Gerald Hatcher, Henry Chezar, Robert Wyland, Christopher R. Sherwood
Assessing grain-size correspondence between flow and deposits of controlled floods in the Colorado River, USA
Flood-deposited sediment has been used to decipher environmental parameters such as variability in watershed sediment supply, paleoflood hydrology, and channel morphology. It is not well known, however, how accurately the deposits reflect sedimentary processes within the flow, and hence what sampling intensity is needed to decipher records of recent or long-past conditions. We examine these proble
Authors
Amy Draut, David M. Rubin
Origin and lateral migration of linear dunes in the Qaidam Basin of NW China revealed by dune sediments, internal structures, and optically stimulated luminescence ages, with implications for linear dunes on Titan: discussion
Zhou et al. (2012) proposed that longitudinal dunes in the Qaidam Basin, China, formed like yardangs: by erosion into sediment that was not deposited by those dunes. Because erosion occurs on the upwind flanks of most migrating dunes (Rubin and Hunter, 1982, 1985), the key to demonstrating a yardang-like origin is to show that the dunes did not deposit the strata that they contain. Zhou et al. mad
Authors
David M. Rubin, Alan M. Rubin
Summary of the Third International Planetary Dunes Workshop: remote sensing and image analysis of planetary dunes
The Third International Planetary Dunes Workshop took place in Flagstaff, AZ, USA during June 12–15, 2012. This meeting brought together a diverse group of researchers to discuss recent advances in terrestrial and planetary research on aeolian bedforms. The workshop included two and a half days of oral and poster presentations, as well as one formal (and one informal) full-day field trip. Similar
Authors
Lori K. Fenton, Rosalyn K. Hayward, Briony H.N. Horgan, David M. Rubin, Timothy N. Titus, Mark A. Bishop, Devon M. Burr, Matthew Chojnacki, Cynthia L. Dinwiddie, Laura Kerber, Alice Le Gall, Timothy I. Michaels, Lynn D.V. Neakrase, Claire E. Newman, Daniela Tirsch, Hezi Yizhaq, James R. Zimbelman
Currents, drag, and sediment transport induced by a tsunami
We report observations of water surface elevation, currents, and suspended sediment concentration (SSC) from a 10-m deep site on the inner shelf in northern Monterey Bay during the arrival of the 2010 Chile tsunami. Velocity profiles were measured from 3.5 m above the bed (mab) to the surface at 2 min intervals, and from 0.1 to 0.7 mab at 1 Hz. SSC was determined from the acoustic backscatter of t
Authors
Jessica R. Lacy, David M. Rubin, Daniel Buscombe