Run For The Hills!, The flight to Winter Quarters... |
Run For The Hills!, The flight to Winter Quarters... |
Feb 28 2006, 05:17 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 136 Joined: 13-October 05 From: Malibu, CA Member No.: 527 |
It seems it might be time to start a post about the run to the hills... there are few days left to get Spirit to a winter-friendly spot somewhere up there - with all those tempting spots that we ~might~ be able to stop by on the way. That is - if we don't dally too long at each!
A discussion of what the best spot would be, and why it would be the best spot seems in order - along with what the best targets on the way would be interesting. I'm looking forward to the possibility that we'll have a chance to see several outcrops that appear to have layers, maybe similar in some respects to HP. Or will they be? I'm also looking forward to the possibility that we might get a look from the top of these hills, off to the South as winter ends, before we descend from the hills and head to the "Promised Land." Later I'll post some snips of locations I'm hoping to see up-close... thought I'd get it done on posting - but, just had an 'emergency' that demands quick departure! |
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Mar 3 2006, 01:52 PM
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#2
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2998 Joined: 30-October 04 Member No.: 105 |
I'd suspect that the diurnal thermal processes result more in exfoliation than the formation of the "paving slabs". This type of fracturing has a polygonal aspect and my first and continuing impression is that it is like mudcracks or frost polygons. There may not be a 1:1 analogue with these terrestrial processes, but the appearance is similar. Once a minute fracture forms, I'd suspect that the aeolian sandblasting over eons chips away at the fracture and significantly widens it.
OTOH, at Meridiani, I have noticed some apparent recent movement in the slabs so it lookss as though these are complex processes with many causes. Our Earthly experiences do not include rock that can lay on the surface for a billion years and be slowly weathered and eroded, so the timeframes are quite different. I did a "google heatflow mars" and came up a lot of relevant topics to Bob's subsurface temperature question. A bit OT but still useful was http://www.mantleplumes.org/index.html . --Bill -------------------- |
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