Cape York - Shoemaker Ridge and the NE traverse, Starting sol 2735 |
Cape York - Shoemaker Ridge and the NE traverse, Starting sol 2735 |
Oct 4 2011, 12:20 PM
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The Poet Dude Group: Moderator Posts: 5551 Joined: 15-March 04 From: Kendal, Cumbria, UK Member No.: 60 |
Oppy's next destination - the Shoemaker Ridge...
(3D version here http://roadtoendeavour.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/sr-3d.jpg ) Some more height...surrounded by lots of gorgeous rocks...view right across Endeavour... our first view too, probably, of the Promised Land in the centre of Cape York where the phylosillicates are waiting to be found... Go get 'em, Oppy! Edit: looks like Oppy's on the move... http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...84P1211L0M1.JPG -------------------- |
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Oct 18 2011, 03:09 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 214 Joined: 30-December 05 Member No.: 628 |
Could the phyllosilicates be in the dust? I guess you'd still have to have an anchored source nearby or they'd be blown all over the planet by now, but the source itself could be much smaller than the CRISM signatures. Along with Bill, I would be searching for more of those light-colored veins.
Maybe this guy knows the answer. (I was dying to post this earlier in the thread, along with the Tardis and the door, but couldn't find the print.) |
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Oct 18 2011, 09:19 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3516 Joined: 4-November 05 From: North Wales Member No.: 542 |
Could the phyllosilicates be in the dust? No, or not mainly so, because as you point out dust is too mobile. There wouldn't be a striking hole in the distribution inside the crater, a place that is clearly accessible to dust. The clay minerals must either themselves consist of larger fragments or coat larger fragments of something else, possibly shattered igneous material. Clay minerals as an external weathered layer on harder grains would fit with Bill's suggestion that the clays formed in cracks rather than being the main bulk constituent of a 'clay layer'. This leads to the question of whether or not the clays formed before the Endeavour impact. Accepting PaulM's obsevation that the clays on Cape Tribulation seem to follow layers I would say this leaves at least two possibilities open. Either, as PaulM suggests, there were clay-rich layers in place before the impact or, perhaps, there were layers of some rock that had the propensity to form clay minerals in fractures produced by the impact, presumably in the continuing presence of moisture. If we are seeing clay signatures from external coatings on many gravel-sized fragments I think that could point to the latter. It's a complicated place and too early to draw conclusions for sure, but not too early to be thinking about it. I just marvel and celebrate the fact that we are freely provided with so much information that we can do that. |
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Oct 18 2011, 11:41 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 813 Joined: 8-February 04 From: Arabia Terra Member No.: 12 |
QUOTE Sol Seq.Ver ETH ESF EDN EFF ERP Tot Description ----- -------- --- --- --- --- --- ---- ----------- 02750 p1595.02 0 0 0 0 0 0 navcam_sun_images_for_msl_pri58 Gathering info for Curiosity? |
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