To the Cape! (part 2), For real this time! Options

[Tesheiner]

This is a navcam mosaic taken after driving during sol 1559.


Mmm, remember the name of this thread?
To the Cape! Yeah!

[nprev]

Mmm...differential weathering? I've seen apparent discontinuities like this in the past on Earth; maybe the prevailing wind path around the two vertically separated regions is just different enough to cause the disparity. (I'm assuming that the whole formation is old, old, old...)

[SteveM]

Mmm...differential weathering? I've seen apparent discontinuities like this in the past on Earth; maybe the prevailing wind path around the two vertically separated regions is just different enough to cause the disparity. (I'm assuming that the whole formation is old, old, old...)

My amateurish observation is that there is a broad lower band (just above the talus deposits) where the stratification is quite noticeable while on the band above that, the stratification is much less distinct. I'm assuming the whole wall were looking at was exposed simultaneously with the formation of the crater (or sometime thereafter). Two possibilities come to mind:

1. The level with marked stratification is made up of alternating strata of differing physical or chemical composition, and so the strata are eroded much differently which makes their differences strikingly visible.

2. The level with marked stratification has broader strata -- i.e., they were laid down in response to slower changes -- and so the erosion is more noticeable.

Comments from the experts are welcome.

Steve M