MSL "Drive, drive, drive" toward Glenelg, The scientists (mostly) get the keys - sols 38-56 Options

[DFinfrock]

On Earth, that would sure look like an old river bed to me.

From this non-geologist, that was my first thought, too. The "sea lions" appear to have been sculpted by flowing water, and are sitting on what seems to be the bedrock of a riverbed. I have seen sculpted limestone with similar laminar markings in caves here on earth.

Again, I'm no geologist, and still have trouble getting my mind to wrap around the idea of how much wind erosion can do on Mars over billions of years. But it still looks like laminar fluid flow in an old riverbed to me.

David

[jamescanvin]

Love the Zoomify! It should come as standard for these big pans from Curiosity. (Also your colours are still my benchmark for the way Mars really looks.) Zoomify should also work for anaglyphs, no?

Glad you like it. I'm steadly trying to simplify/automate the production of my mosaics including making the zoomify version, they make a lot of sense for huge mastcam pans and are much better for browsing on a tablet. And yes, anaglyphs should work fine.

J

[Stu]

"At Glenelg's Edge"...



Easy - and a little heartbreaking - to imagine what it would be like to walk up to that ridge, crumping through the dust, stop, and drink in the view around you as the Sun climbs into the brightening sky...

[belleraphon1]

Imagine if one of the Viking landers had come here. All these beuatiful vistas and NOT being able to rove. Of course the Vikings had a huge langing ellipse and so needed 'flat' and less rocky terrain over a huge area to try and optimize the landings.

What a gift the entry and skycrane engineers gave us.... to land at a site like this.... and we have Mt Sharp to come later.... paradise



Craig

[paraisosdelsiste...]

Deimos transit on Sol 42 with the new frames

[charborob]

Sol 55 afternoon pan:

[Ant103]

And my take. Seriously, I LOVE these late afternoon shots.

[Phil Stooke]

Fantastic! And combining it with the earlier view of the drift we get this circular map view of the area.

Phil

[xflare]

Some of these rocks look similar to what spirit saw at homeplate. But maybe that very thin layered rock is sediment layed down from repeated floods from the alluvial fan - with each layer representing a new event. ........ maybe

[ngunn]

Maybe before there was a fan there was a glacier, or maybe there is still a glacier under the fan?? This area looks like the result of the sudden draining of a lake or a glacier burst. The scouring could even have happened beneath an ice layer due to sudden re-routing of the subglacial plumbing. Not trying to fit with any particular story, just saying what it resembles - to me at least - at first acquaintance. I hope they spend long enough here to nail down the true story, organics or no organics.

[dvandorn]

The tightly layered rocks at Home Plate in Gusev were laid down by a hydrothermal system, according to the best theories I've read. (Think: Yellowstone Park hot springs and pools.) And the rocks here at the approach to Glenelg look, at least at first glance, like the Home Plate rocks.

Could there have been hydrothermal activity here?

-the other Doug

[Bill Harris]

I'll take cyclic, seasonal deposition for $100, Alex.

--Bill

[jvandriel]

Sol 55 Part of the Navcam LA Panorama view.

Jan van Driel

[jvandriel]

Sol 45

Playing with ImageJ and part of the MASTCam R Panorama.

Jan van Driel

[PaulM]

Sol 55 Part of the Navcam LA Panorama view.

Jan van Driel

I think that I can see the edge of a channel in the top left part of this panorama between the near lighter plain and the distant darker plain. Could this be a water channel of is it just a crater?