Hmmm.

Frames of a colour view of Whim Creek are coming back, and here's what I've been able to make so far - quick go, not a lot of time to do this, but you get the idea...



Lovely geology, but I can't get rid of that green area to the left. Give it another go tomorrow. It should be blue grey, I'm sure. The two James's will do it right.

However, in false colour it's clear that there's a difference in the surface material there, as if something has been deposited on the ground in some way..?



Interesting..?

Discuss.

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Basically the same idea as for Anatolia at the beginning of the trek... it sounds reasonable to me.

Phil Stooke

The Sol-3029 5 x 1 mosaic of Whim Creek.

And a False color view.

How would that explain the lateral "wedge" or "dagger" shape that is narrow on the Cape York side and opens up into a wide expanse towards the crater interior?

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Could whim be the collapse of an air pocket created by an ancient impact that blew a huge rock apart? Oops, I'm suggesting the same thing Gladstone is suggesting.

The 'lateral wedge' could be part of a huge rock that was already fragile from other ancient processes or impacts? Okay, I'll keep quiet now!

Don't you think we have also to "connect" this to the existence of Cape York itself in some way?

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I'm in way over my head trying to outline geological scenarios. I was starting to do so in my post, and my thought was swallowed into the Gladstoner sinkhole!

"I wonder if it is actually a sinkhole filled with rubble..." - Gladstoner Post #452 PDT yesterday

I wondered the same about the tiny crater we rolled by recently - Sao Gabriel crater from Post #363

{edit}: I wondered if the impact that made the crater penetrated an air pocket or weak spot in the underlying rock that created a sinkhole look on the interior.

I'm chuckling right now because I feel like a little child that may or may not deserve a pat on the head from the elders for trying to grasp things beyond his education!

Those who prefer a bird in the hand to two in the bush...

You have to realize that the layered sediments that the dagger/wedge/notch is in are thinning in the direction of Cape York. Cape York itself is composed of Endeavour impact ejecta breccias. The cape rocks are overlain by wedges of sediments that thicken away from the cape.

Since the sediments thin to nothing as they approach Cape York, the Whim Creek structure fades away as it approaches the cape. This observation seems to suggest that the fractures forming the structure do not extend down into the older rocks of Cape York. It would be good to carefully image the rim rocks on trend with Whim Creek to determine if basement fractures are involved or not.


Looking at the bottom of the trench, I'm not sure that the blocks look like a "random jumble" to me.

Wow, Paolo, for being so data-constrained, you guys seem pretty serious about taking this Whim Creek mosaic.

Adding: and I'm glad you are; well, whoever is driving Opportunity now.

For a person that spent the past eight years of his life caring about this extension of myself on another planet, I find this statement quite insensitive. I'm not offended by your comment, just saddened: Oppy is "my" baby rover!

Paolo