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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Nov 5 2012, 05:24 AM
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#2
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Member Group: Members Posts: 215 Joined: 23-October 12 From: Russia Member No.: 6725 |
Greetings from Russia
I want to share my observation. I looked at pictures and noticed that many of the stones are similar to volcanic. It seems even that lava river. So close to be a volcano? This is clearly not Elysium Mons In the north-west is the mountain, which can be a volcano? It turns out it can be a source of the alluvial fan and inverted (lava?) channels? -------------------- My blog on Patreon
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Nov 5 2012, 06:06 PM
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#3
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 30 Joined: 6-September 12 From: Denver Member No.: 6641 |
Hi, my first post.
The problem with a volcanic interpretation of these landforms is the conglomerates already discovered. Conglomerates only form in alluvial environments, where water has flowed and rounded the cobbles. I agree that some of the rocks look like volcanic in nature, but the closeup images taking with the MARDI they show no mineral grains. This means the grains are smaller, at least on the surface, than the resolving power of MARDI, which is pretty small. The only volcanic rocks that I have seen with no visible grains is volcanic glass. Since volcanic glass is not stable, at least on Earth, it should have devitrified by now, and show some crystallization of the rock. Of course reality is probably a mix of both alluvial processes and volcanic process were involved with the formations we see today. Which makes this area probably the more exciting spot explored on Mars so far, sorry opportunity. Mod: Excessive quoting removed. Read rule 3.5 please. |
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