Sparkling sand

When the wind pushes the tiny grains of sand scattered across the earth's surface, they move forward in small boats in a movement known as saltation . Now, two researchers at the University of Michigan have found that this seemingly insignificant movement has major repercussions on the global climate, releasing aerosols of dust into the atmosphere. Their findings are published in the next issue of the journal Physical Review Letters .

As Nilton Renno and Jasper Kok have shown, when sand grains bounce and collide with each other, the ground surface becomes positively charged, while the sand acquires a negative charge. The resulting electric field is strong enough to make the dust particles move.

This physical phenomenon is not only important to understand some aspects of the Earth's climate . In addition, Renno believes that it could be occurring on the surface of the red planet to the point of making "sparks fly" at the level of the Martian soil.