I think they turned the wheel after stopping.

According to the MER tracking pages imsages for sol 785 are down, but not on the exp' website, I thought there might be probalem with the site again, but images for Oppy are online... so maybe just a glitch on the Spirit side. Weird.

This looks EXACTLY the same as Arad, Paso Robles and other less studied places where bright soil has been uncovered. It's salt-rich, not ice-rich.

Phil

Interesting shots of the drag marks.......... still no driving though

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/pa...67P2530L7M1.JPG

Same as above, in false color

Same as above, in context:



I like these three (very) false-color Pancam frames too. Different subject, though:

Well, some movement took place; at least looking to the "site/drive" id. which has changed from AQ75 (on sol 784) to the current id. AQ81. But I can't find any "post-drive" navcam mosaic to make a driving distance estimation.

The move to AQ81 was basically nothing. But wait! Now we're up to AQAE:

2F196230651EFFAQAEP1213R0M1.JPG

Here's the view directly South on Sol 787, angled down 35 degrees to catch the dramatic wheel tracks:

Dramatic is right! Is it a fair conclusion that the 'popcorn' is actually granules of iron sulfate salts? This looks like a really major bed of the stuff.

Very impressive turn, how did displaced so much white powder?!

Looks like the impediment of dragging the stuck wheel is actually bearing scientific fruit.

We are trenching wherever we go and serendipitously stumbling upon interesting soils.

Didn't someone say they wished the Mers had ploughs - now one of them does!

Nick

Yeah, I wish it were retractable though. It's great fun in the sand, but I'm getting worried about when we get into the rocks. A worst-case scenario might be: two steps forward - one step back - turn - two steps forward - one step back - turn....
Hustle, guys! We have got to get to the Safe Zone! Stick to the sand until we get there.

That's really remarkable (again!)...still amazes me that this stuff exists in such discrete deposits so near the surface.

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know if potassium, sulphur, etc. salts decompose when exposed to typical Martian UV levels? Be interesting to know if this might be one big reason we don't see direct surface deposits.

Due to the Spirit dragging surface, I hope to find some very interesting news soon from the wheel dragging mark. I won't be hoping to see any plant ancient roots but something novel thing hidden by the dust deposition. So, come any birds to catch any alive worms!

Rodolfo

This could be percolation of salt-heavy groundwater, with evaporation at the surface leaving the salts, and then overcover of dust/sand.

Does anyone really understand the effects of evaporation through soils (from deep within the soil) in a low-pressure environment over millions of years? I wonder if the white salt beds and the odd formations (popcorn, like cave-popcorn, and blueberries, etc.) could be explained simply due to slow molecular water movement from within the the regolith and rock out to the atmosphere. The presence of underground water, even when frozen, with a thin atmosphere on the outside, sets up a strong molecule-by-molecule pumping gradient. It could fizz out into all kinds of formations similar to what are found in caves on earth.

Scott