Fred's well-spotted "Half Dome" (right) and another one nearby, both enhanced to bring out details...

From sol 114:


Whatever it is composed of - visually the fine shine let it look like soapstone.

Thank you ronald for these stereoscopic view.

I'm adding a color anaglyph, and so it's complete

Chemcam mosaic, sol 126 - it's getting hard to distinguish this from the MIs at Endeavour.

Phil

It isn't just you. View-by-sol on the raw images pages still isn't reliably showing all images right away. For example, right now http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?s=126 shows two ChemCam images while http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/ra...126&camera= shows five. It might correct itself after a while. But this has already been discussed in the Image Retrieval Tools thread, and further discussion of it should probably go there (just wanted you to know you're not imagining things). I think a simple workaround is to view by instrument.

What I can't help noticing exposed in the block in the center is a beautiful example of a disconformity (erosion surface, caused by scouring) between the cross-bedded coarse-grained material on top (what I was commenting on in #259 above) and likewise cross-bedded, but uniformly fine-grained material on the bottom. In terms of transport environments, the beds on top represent a relatively high-energy environment, able to move the larger, darker grains, and the beds on the bottom represent a relatively low-energy environment, where only lighter dust or fine sand grains could be moved. The nature of the fluid involved in this transport is open to debate.
-dburt

Good observation about the disconformity. These morphologies certainly seem to agree with this being at the tail end of an ancient alluvial fan, possibly emptying into a lake. Given the relatively small thickness of the beds and the low angle of the cross-bedding, it argues for water being the transporting fluid. This contrasts with the classical wind-driven cross bedding example on Earth, the Navajo sandstone, which you referred to in your post #259. If my memory is correct, the thickness of the cross-bedding in the Navajo sandstone is on the order of tens of meters to hundreds of meters, much larger than what we are seeing here on Mars.

Not necessarily, as I explained in great detail here on UMSF over 5 years ago, and in publications with Paul Knauth and Ken Wohletz earlier. Very similar surface rocks with identical bedding features were imaged by the two rovers Opportunity and Spirit and were attributed to a variety of fluids, including water, wind, and volcanic gas. I suggested all could easily be blast beds, resulting from distant impacts. You can consult those references for details. The debate may still be open after 5 years, but not on these pages PLEASE.
-dburt

Good eye good eye nice find.
I cut and color adjusted this from the adjacent image 0123MR0767000000E1.
So what is the white material?

Well the Meridiani sandstone layers are hundreds of metres thick and for height (= depth) of sedimentary structures Mount Sharp leaves all in its wake. Curiosity will no doubt narrow down the options for deposition in this area but in the interim nothing can be taken for granted despite the pretty strong indications that these beds are associated with the fan. I mean the disconformity could be scour, or a deflationary surface followed by a energetic depositional process, or it could even be a sequence boundary (drowning unconformity) or a change in fluid etc.

We just had another move towards the rocks, probably positioning for a first test drill. Very rough position:




Phil

Colored Chem Cam, sol 117
Now complete

Lovely place...

B-b-but ? What have you done with the sky Stu ??

Sol 127 Navcam pan :

Just wanted to isolate the rocks in the foreground, Ant, they're so dramatic. I'm rubbish at skies anyway!