Dust isn't only deposited - it is also blown off

Surely you jest, Emily. Millions of debates are settled each day not on facts, but on who can better argue their position. It's called our legal system.

Of course scientific interpretation is an entirely different matter from legal interpretation.

But if the expert witnesses turn up with an estimate that has an uncertainty of two orders of magnitude then somebody has to step in and adjudicate.

I think you're correct,... and dust is also blown into (maybe more than blown off, because a crater acts like a hole in the soil). In any case, it's evident that older craters are more dust filled than newer ones. There are plenty of ancient dust filled craters almost completely filled, which rims are almost unrecognizable. Maybe it's complex to determine an approximate relationship of crater age from crater diameter and depth, but I suppose that's because it's not a trivial relationship, but I think it's evident that it exists. At least, this could be a method for chronological ordering crater ages in a same martian regional area, where sand and dust behavior are the sam in all their craters.

It may not even be a monotonic relationship. A crater could fill up and get cleaned out again over and over, on long timescales. Same with drifts and dunes. They may move rapidly in some epochs, hardly at all in others, and the active epochs could be out of phase at different locations on Mars. It's not that easy to find a reliable clock on any world. (Ask the archaeologists.)

Sol 2143 view with the model at sol 2138 .The false-color Pancam image was labelled "Loboc River".

Some very interesting features on that rock, and the one to its right...

Cool!

I wonder when those fracture patterns set up on that central block. Pre-impact or post-impact?

Interesting quasicircular feature on square-shaped rock.

Mahanay Island's a bit rough, isn't it?

Mahanay Island's a bit rough, isn't it?

Is that a ring of blueberries around the base? If so, I wonder if some scholarly soul with a knowledge of the weathering rate could put this scene to good use.

For me, the undercutting erosion of features like this blows away the idea that Concepcion is a mere 1000 years old. It must be much older, surely... with the caveat that I have not yet done the homework advised by Emily.

This is from tosol's plan:

> 02145::p2556::24::4::0::0::4::2::10::pancam_Chocolate_Hills_L257R1

Enjoy it.

Chocolate Hills... you couldn't make it up, could you?