Recent Developments in Understanding Wind Driven Erosion

The wind driven transport of granular material is an important environmental/climatic factor on Earth and even more so on Mars. Several related aspects of Aeolian activity are presently being studied in the laboratory. These include simulating wind driven erosion in the laboratory and the study of mineral change due to mechanical activation as well as quantifying erosion rates. The generation of electric fields and the effects of these electric fields on grain transport is also being investigated using environmental wind tunnel simulators.