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The dark dunes in the western Medusae Fossae formation provide some evidence of having a local origin.

This image shows no large dunes, but many of the dark sand patches cover slopes up to discrete layers. It is possible that the sand is eroding out from those layers, but slopes can also act as sand traps.

The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.