Phil:

I don't see it either. It looked as much about erosion as anything...

...still, worth a look - though perhaps not so much as a look as it has had!

Bob Shaw

Yep. The erosion is preferential along cracks which cause angular points in the bedding. Reminds me of topographic maps of the southwest: eroded canyons with the contour lines (which are by definition parallel to each other) creating points and waves and T-shapes against the canyon floor.

You really have to look at the rocks from the side to see if any of the beds bend up to form little hats.

Scott

The rocks remind me of this:

I don't know. These things appear very differently depending on the directions in which they are sliced. I'm guessing (hoping) that the little bump forward we saw today means they will soon start a new campaign of MIs on Upper Overgaard. I thought the pancams of the plan view on the upper/over section of Overgaard were convincing, if the smiles elsewhere were not.

Where do you think Bellemont and Roosevelt are? They are the rovers next targets...perhaps they are the targets seen in alot of the super res imaging done lately. It looks like we'll be here for along time yet.

Yes - I think they've been super-res'd recently.

Doug

I think all the MI images so far have been of lower Overgaard (correct me if I'm wrong). Just to note, Steve mentions in his latest update (January 29) that only lower Overgaard was imaged so far and upper Overgaard is now next, which has the festoons.

http://athena.cornell.edu/news/mubss

"At Meridiani, Opportunity is moving again. We've found a way to drive short distances with the IDD deployed, and we used it successfully to get to the lower part of Overgaard. The MI imaging there has gone beautifully, and we're about to make a move to the upper part of Overgaard, where the festoons are."

"Once we've hit all the festoons on Upper Overgaard, then there are a couple of other nearby targets we've got our eyes on... one called Bellemont and another called Roosevelt. We'll go after one or both of those, and then it will be time to hit the road in a big way."

The key words I'm sure everyone wanted to see:

"...then it will be time to hit the road in a big way."

Then does this imply Oppy will not even bother driving up to Mogollon, and that once the "festoon festivities" are over, she'll blaze a straight line towards Victoria? (well, as straight a line as possible through all these dunes).

I don't believe they will pass up Mogollon. Besides, it's on the way. They will at least stop to take a look.

I was a little surprised by Steve's statement: "...the upper part of Overgaard, where the festoons are," implying that they might not be present elsewhere. The most spectacular ones are definitely those on Upper Overgaard, but I have been interpreting some on Lower Overgaard (LO) as well. They are perhaps not as well displayed, but I think some can be seen in the lower left corner of LO. Middle LO may also have some, though they seem either more poorly preserved, displayed, or perhaps deformed. Upper LO has some, too. Since that part of the rock has broken away from a lower part of UO, which has some festoon bedding, you can see the continuation of them across the fracture, on upper LO.

For convenience, here is a link to a page where the image is available in several different sizes.

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/pre.../20060106a.html

................................

"festoon festivities"

................................

Regarding Mogollon, when Steve didn't mention it prior to Victoria, it had me wondering also. They wouldn't turn tail and run without a closer look at the section there would they?

I hope not. I think not. The morphology of the Mogollon area-- the dark "bluff" in particular-- is different enough to warrant a look. Not to mention, in roder to go south they'll have to drive along Mogollon. Going straight across the dunes of the Erebus interior would be foolish.

--Bill

Hey, it's CosRok! And he's still able to type!
I guess the teenyboppers didn't tear you limb from limb!
That's always a good sign. Of course we're eager for a blow-by-blow account, assuming you don't mind talking about it.

So, about these festoons . You didn't provide a marked map, but I'm guessing you were referring to areas like those I've circled in puce
Do you realize that the area of 'UnderOvergaard' subjected to close MI study does a rather brilliant job of avoiding these areas?! What on Mars can they be thinking about? Did they want a purely parallel bedding area to compare with OverOvergaard? Or did they just "whip out the IDD" at a random location?
(Personally I think we ought to be a bit more prudent about where we whip it out.) (Especially since Oppy is starting to get a bit 'shaky' at whipping it out!)

Yeah. I realized today that I owed some of you an update about how well it has been going. I'll try to do that tonight.

Regarding the festoons, you captured most of those I had in mind. I would have expanded one of your outlines a bit, but I didn't provide a marked image because I was trying to follow Doug's suggestion that we use images hosted elsewhere when possible. I thought I could describe verbally the areas I was speaking of, and apparently you were able and willing to figure it out. The marked-up image does make it easier, though.

There is possibly a good reason to avoid some of those areas with the MIs. They may want to learn more about the festoons in the context of their setting, and then image the festivities where they are best diplayed. The other types of bedding nearby are important to understand, too.

Nice MI sequence on Sol719, showing the increasing shadow cast from festoons...
(in this movie, I slowed the final part)