The Pancam L2 and R2 view on Sol 3658 in Stereo.

Jan van Driel

Sol 3659 navcam pan:

(Panorama is a bit crappy, but the scenery is fantastic.)

Yes indeed, fantastic. I added the partial frame at the right end of your pan and made a circular version of it. Some little veins cutting the rock here and there. Also - where I think we are now.

Phil

My view of the Sol 3659 Navcam L0 images.

Jan van Driel

More than just about anywhere else here at Meridiani (or even at Gusev or Gale), this area looks like it was a heavily populated block field which has been worn down to just the nubs of boulders after eons of wind erosion.

This appears to go beyond Steve Squyres' "dog's breakfast" of eroded, jumbled rocks. This area was a huge GIANT dog's breakfast...

-the other Doug (with my shield, not yet upon it)

My take on this pan, it's a wonderful view



UPDATED

To me it looks like fairly intact layers uplifted as a crater rim during impact.

Indeed they do, although if this is uplift rim it is a little difficult to correlate to the contention that at the much lower Cape York Matijevic Formation, the contact represented the pre impact surface. Could we possibly be looking at an overturned rim here being the pre-Endeavour sub surface?

The view is superb and I love the contrast between the fall away into the crater to the East compared to the gentle Western slope of the Meridiani onlap.

Great! Damia

Are we all that much higher in fact? Even if we are a little higher I don't see much of a problem. We can't assume the pre-Endeavour surface was horizontal to start with, or that different portions of the rim were necessarily uplifted by equal amounts.

Yes, a beautiful place, and that new full panorama is spectacular, Damia. Here's a circular version.

To me these rocks look like the impact breccias (AKA ejecta) on Cape York. There are lots of clasts embedded in the rocks right in front of us.

Phil

NPREVs point that the height difference is not all that great is well taken, however as Phil points out this is a clastic breccia, akin to the Cape York Shoemaker formation whereas the Matejevik original surface was fine grained. My query about potential overturned rim was prompted by a niggling question as to whether, given the low solubility of aluminium, there would be sufficient groundwater in the rim to enable aluminium hydroxide to form. If not then this could imply a pre-impact formation.

Yep, that's exactly why it looks to me like this used to be a blocky ejecta field that has been eroded down to the ground, so to speak. Because the base rocks all appear to be highly brecciated.

I appreciate the comments, though -- to let a small cat out of the bag, I'm in the middle of a very difficult recovery from the first of two major abdominal surgeries. (The second surgery will happen as soon as I'm well enough recovered from the first one, and I keep developing post-op infections that are getting badly in the way of my recovery). This means that I have had more time and such to read and post to the forum -- but it also means that, at least at times, I'm on some pretty serious painkillers. I check anything I post three or four times to make certain it's not the product of a drug-addled brain, but just to let y'all know, if I post something that seems more incoherent than normal for me, it's likely because of the ocycodone.

But anyway, thanks Phil, I'm happy to see that I'm not the only person who noticed that the base rocks here at Murray Ridge all seem to be breccias, implying this is the remnants of a thickly bouldered ejecta field.

-the other Doug (with my shield, not yet upon it)

Doug--It is a real fight sometimes. Keep your shield up and know we are shoulder to shoulder with you.

Regards, Floyd

Sol 3633 & 3634 pancam panoramic, now in colors