... and it seems that there are some layerings visible inside the "walls" of the Dagger. An interesting feature indeed !

...and look at the low-gain antenna mast : so dusty now. With even some clods of dust/dirt sticking on it !

Indeed, VM. I've been following the "antenna dust" phenomenon for several years.

Here are images from Sol-2678 (June 2011) and Sol-2777 (November 2011) showing how much the dust has increased in just 100 Sols.

This makes sense. Cape York is actively weathering and eroding and the light winds available in this season are enough to suspend fine dust particles so that they can adhere to the antenna. As the season moves on, we will hopefully get gustier transient winds, which will lead to a cleaning event.

--Bill

The navcam images shot after today's (2778) drive are available here (http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...cam/2011-11-17/) and it looks like we are almost at the summit (if we can call it this way). The view should be great BUT unfortunately all ìmages were intentionally taken pointing down so the horizon is out of the FoV.

Edit: Added a quick navcam mosaic pointing south to what I presume is "Turkey Haven".

The horizon is simply not important right now. The important areas are at our feet.

We do have a nice L257 of "Turkey Haven", though. I'm going to miss my informal name for it-- "Gracie Peak, a major structural feature of the Allen Formation".

--Bill

How can anybody say that?

Geologists... - I don't know. (huff, puff)
I give up.

PS I think we'll get plenty of horizon in due course, maybe an opportunity for a long baseline pancam 3D of Cook and friends??

The horizon is important IMO . But yet, sometimes you have to made concessions when imaging an outcrop like this.



And a little color ?

Right. So. We're currently sitting on a locally north-titled dip right before this little mound in front of us. Tilt is between 5 and 10 degrees, I don't know exactly. We're going to recon this hill to our south and then the same ridge, about 15 meters away, a little more to the East. The hill to our south is Turkey Haven -- where we might stay for the long Thanksgiving weekend -- with a north tilt of about 15 degrees; the one that's more to the east on the same ridge is one of the highest northerly tilted areas on all of Cape York. I don't know if there's a target associated with that one yet.

We've got a bit more mapping to do of other parts, but these spots look very promising to come back to once we're done mapping and roving around for some science.

-m

And here is the half-frame L257 of Turkey Haven on Sol-2778 (P2430).

The first thought that most geologists would have seeing colors like these is "Whoa, this is deeply weathered".

--Bill


EDIT-- added a L257 of North Haven on Sol-2778 (P2431) that came in later.

(Hey Bill, that blue sky makes it look like Arizona! Nice!)

As we anticipate the 'reveal' of the unique dagger formation (just over the hill) I noticed a rock at the edge of the skirt of CY at the mouth of the dagger. I can't remember seeing exposed large rocks at the skirt's edge -- that weren't related to a nearby crater (and if my poor memory is faulty- I am sure some one will 'remind' me ) Anyway, could the rock have had some hand in making the (shallow) trench and aeolian erosion did the rest??

Hmm. If the wind is being funneled through the dagger formation, then that might be a place to get a solar panel cleaning? Of course, conditions may have changed since then.

Does that mean we can expect a location called "Santa's Workshop" a month from now?

Here, for comparison, is a different view of the same HiRISE image. This has been processed to emphasize small, low contrast features so it looks rather chunky compared to PDP's image.

The Dagger is emigmatic, to be sure. It looks like it is a water-related erosinal feature, but given it's locale has to be an aeolian feature. And notice the way it fans out to the NE-- almost like a slope failure/landslide. It has to be fairly recent-- look at the sharp rock ledges along it's margins. And notice the similar, but less evolved, feature on the left side of these images.

My speculation is that the Dagger is an area of weak, less-resistant bedrock (in a fracture zone, for example) and the rocks are more prone to wind erosion. Or instead of fractures, the rock is lithologically different because this is an old paleo land surface that is early- or pre-Endeavor and is a different rock type.

Whatever it is, it will make for good science.

--Bill

Those colors certainly caught my attention and had me thinking, "Whoa!" But, I am not sure it is deeply weathered. The iron oxidation that is surely causing those color contrasts seems not to be related to weathering surfaces, but rather to some other structures internal to this outcrop. I'd go so far as to say the outcrop is deeply altered. I'll admit, though, that weathering often follows planes of weakness, and that this first view of the outcrop could be tricky to interpret. I can't wait to see some higher resolution images of these rocks. How about that vein or dike in the drive direction pancams to the left of turkey haven? I'm looking forward to seeing that in higher res.

Thanks for the info and for your yesterday's blog entry too, Matt.

Note to everyone: check that blog; it has a lot of "goodies".