Geomorphology of Gale Crater, Rock on! |
Geomorphology of Gale Crater, Rock on! |
Sep 26 2012, 10:22 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3516 Joined: 4-November 05 From: North Wales Member No.: 542 |
I'd like a discussion thread about the geology detatched from the time limits of current MSL threads. We had a 'Geomorphology of Cape York' thread that attracted a lot of interesting posts. How about 'Geomorphology of Gale Crater'? I have one or two ideas but many more questions, and I'd like to post them in a longer-running thread away from the day to day imaging discussion. Any other takers?
For starters, does anybody have a contour map of this place like the one at Meridiani with 5m intervals? ADMIN: You have your wishes fulfilled on UMSF (sometimes) |
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Oct 1 2012, 09:31 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3516 Joined: 4-November 05 From: North Wales Member No.: 542 |
Eyesonmars: Interesting question. Here's an off-the shelf response based on the conventional story about impact crater counts and age of surfaces. No big craters means a spell of significant deposition or erosion since heavy bombardment ceased. Many small craters means little net deposition or erosion for a very long time after the reworking of the surface that erased the big ones.
This being Mars you'd have to add that these little craters must have formed into a relatively dry surface since the little impactors couldn't have penetrated a significant thickness of water or ice. Like you, I think the peculiar density of craters here, just above the Glenelg boundary, is significant. It could signify the exposure of an ancient surface neither mantled (as at Bradbury Landing) nor scoured away (Glenelg high thermal inertia unit). I note its similarity to the third type of terrain to the SE of Glenelg. |
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