Now the whole set of pics is available. A much better view (Dilo's style)!

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Yep, that is a good panorama. I saw that Spirit was in the edge of the HP bowl and was looking around for a way to drive out. It looks as though she might drive to the right of the panorama (around the dark scoria outcrop) and then cut to the left and towards McCool Hill.

--Bill

Actually, the "drive-direction" pancam mosaic looks on that direction.
There are some dune fields which can be seen on the rightmost navcam image of my panorama; those ones are (I guess) on the same north-south corridor Spirit was from sols 714 to 735. Now it will be time to approach the corridor and go back northwards (then NE).

Wow.

Great images, as ever - and Mitcheltree Ridge looks more and more interesting - that is if I'm seeing what I think I am!

Bob Shaw

The new pancam mosaics also show great detail in the outcrops on McCool Hill, in the background. Clearly there will be lots to look at over there throughout the winter. And if a close inspection shows similarities to Home Plate, the need to come back will be greatly reduced.

Phil

M Howard's middle image on the left indicates the flat lying HP beds where the rover is sitting , show increasing dip toward the edge of the outcrop where the dip appears steeply toward us.

Also his upper right image shows beds dipping inward in a small circular depression. Any ideas??

What a dramatic ridge! - It is almost like a fortress wall with a bastion to the right.

Wow is right. This is what I think we're seeing: the prevailing/local wind direction is from the NW, so the "Gibson" side of HP is being eroded face-on to the section so it shows the layering quite well. The wind at this current exposure blows more parallel to the laminations so it shows the bedding surfaces better, although the view cuts across.

I'm thinking that the volcanic ash here did blanket this area and those wonderful outcrops on McCool Hill will be related and will show lateral changes. As Phil suggests, Spirit may gather enough data, as well as providing another image viewpoint, to reduce the necessity to return to HP, although the "cinder cone" at Pitchers Mound calls for a closer look.

--Bill

Yes - Mitcheltree Ridge looked like not a lot until we saw these views, though it'd still be great to circumnavigate HP and have a look at Pitcher's Mound. Baby Mound, though, looks just like a mound - whatever is there seems well hidden. Anyway, the bottom line is that the structures we see locally may be part of an overall complex of exposures, and that's got to be good news.

Bob Shaw

For us non-geologist types... could someone give a best guess to what we are seeing on Mitcheltree Ridge? Is that an igneous dike? Or simply a harder more erosion-resistant layer? Or something else entirely?

David

David: Imo what you are seeing on Mitchelltree ridge are beds equivalent to those we are siiting on at HP.
The resistant layer is equivalent to the lower part of HP and is overlain by the lighter colored X-bedded layers. The unconsolidated material at the base is equivalent to the same material we saw at HP.

Oh, man are there some things going on between where where Spirit now sits and across the gully to the next outcropping layers. The recent images of this side of the "plate" are astounding. I'm going to bite my tongue for the time being, because every time I look at them, I see something different. Oh, to be there in person.

Just why does the vesicular basalt float become abundant at this boundary? Was it extruded from dikes? Are the dips really changing? I don't think I was expecting this. The good news is that I think we are going in this direction and should get more useful information soon.

Yup - and so far, nothing that shouts 'dyke', though originally I'd have thought that was a serious contender. But now we see the same structures elsewhere it mat mean that, strictly, we don't need to return to HP (though I'd still like to see Spirit drive right round, and have a good go at Pitcher's Mound too!).

(interesting typo there, now fixed, 'a good goat' - which seems to describe Spirit quite well!)

Bob Shaw

Considering what Sprit's made of, it'd be more likely to munch on old tin cans like a goat than on martian grass, if there were any.

I don't see any old tin cans, though... even if Richard Hoaxland and acolytes initially identified gobs of "artyfracts"