Duck Bay will be the entry point according to Squyres, From Planetary Society Options

[atomoid]

whats all this talk about 'dead Lizards' ? (this isnt of course a new euphonism for the 'soup dragon' is it?)
did the world pass right by while i was on siesta?

so the fox news headline should be: "Oppy goes 'streaking' then dives in with the ducks...

[Floyd]

whats all this talk about 'dead Lizards' ?

see:

Anyone care to comment on the object which appears to be drapped over the fallen rock in the centre of this image?

[attachment=7849:attachment]
and much discussion and other pictures in thread.

[atomoid]

Thanks, but i was only able to salvage this image from decoding your post above.. and i dont know what im looking at, a dead Lizard..?

[kenny]

That's the correct image. The distinctive block in the center has the appearance of having a rough long object draped over it, hanging over the lower edge. We speculated at the time that it might be fluidized flow which later congealed - mud, dirty ice, or maybe just a visual artefact. It got the name of a dead Lizard from the appearance of rough skin and splayed legs, if you have a good imagination. That's all it is... it may be a strange feature, maybe just some naming fun...

[BrianL]

People in here seem to be talking about getting up close to the cliff faces to investigate the layering. Are the same strata not available on the driving ramp? That's how they did it at Endurance. Seems safer than over by where the Martians would have posted Watch For Falling Rocks signs.

Brian

[centsworth_II]

Are the same strata not available on the driving ramp?

Hopefully. I remember being able to SEE the layers of Burns Cliff
extending all the way across to Karatepe where Opportunity drove in.
I haven't heard any discussion or seen any clear example of the same
situation at Duck Bay. But there is the "cool factor" of having
Opportunity reach out and touch one of those cliff faces.

As far as falling rocks are concerned, my IN-expert opinion is that
rock falls in Victoria are measured at a rate of one per century, and
I don't expect any rover activity to change that.

[helvick]

But there is the "cool factor" of having
Opportunity reach out and touch one of those cliff faces.

Don't discount the risk of the "Doh!" factor that would result from Oppy disturbing a cliff face that came crashing down on and around here. I'm with BrianL on this for now - there's danger in them cliffs, stay clear.

[antoniseb]

Don't discount the risk of the "Doh!" factor that would result from Oppy disturbing a cliff face that came crashing down on and around here. I'm with BrianL on this for now - there's danger in them cliffs, stay clear.

I think the biggest danger is shade. On the other hand, I don't think that we can get reliable strata chemistry chronology from the debris on the ramps.

[hendric]

As far as falling rocks are concerned, my IN-expert opinion is that
rock falls in Victoria are measured at a rate of one per century, and
I don't expect any rover activity to change that.

I disagree. We see several tracks from rocks that have fallen off the cliffs. Based on the amount of erosion of Opportunities tracks at Purgatory, I would say that a sizeable rock happens to fall much sooner. Once we get back to Duck Bay, we can see how much her tracks have been wiped away. Admittedly, the erosion exterior to the crater is different than inside the crater, but with HiRise we will see how both the Opportunity's and rocks' tracks within the crater evolve over time.

I'll bet a Mars bar that we will see some kind of change somewhere around the rim of Victoria while we're here. Specifically, that there will be a change noticable by either HiRise or Opp. before she leaves the crater. Hopefully, if a rock does manage to roll away from a cliff, Opp can scoot over and take a look at the newly exposed interior.

Speaking of which, has anyone done a detailed comparison of the images released so far?

[Guest_Edward Schmitz_*]

Just my opinion...

On earth, the few rocks we're looking at would take a LONG time to erode away. That's with the benefit of water and 100 times more atmosphere. We've also had the chance to check up on soil movement over months. While there was some change, it was tiny in the extreme. Those rocks have been sitting there for a long time...

Just my opinion...

[helvick]

My fear is that these rocks are made of very soft material and are clearly highly fractured. The general environment is incredibly benign by Earth standards (wind forces are very low, there is no rain etc) so the sides of those cliffs might be very precariously balanced and sensitive to very minor events. We've already seen an area apparently knocked loose by Spirit as she poked around near Larry's Lookout I'd hate to see Oppy trigger an equivalent fall from one of the Cape cliffs.

[BrianL]

I don't think that we can get reliable strata chemistry chronology from the debris on the ramps.

Can you tell from the pictures so far that the ramps are made of fallen debris, not the sheared away layers that are obvious in the cliff faces? If indeed that is what they are, then I guess there is no choice but to approach the cliffs. Can Oppy RAT a vertical surface in front of it? I could be wrong but it seems to me anything RATTed up to this point has been more or less underfoot.

Brian

[Shaka]

If MER can't RAT a vertical surface, the designers made a major boo boo - I assume that it can and already has at some locations, e.g. Comanche. It will take a detailed stratigraphic comparison of mid-bay units with those in the capes to convince me that there is no element of collapse in the bay exposures.
But we could analyze the mid-bay first, just in case we do bring the whole cape down on top of us!
Anybody got a hard hat?

[djellison]

Humphrey was a near face-on ratting, as was, I THINK.... Upper Dells or Guadaloupe. (or one of the other Eagle outcrop targets )

Doug

[fredk]

Then there was that pre-landing ratting animation, where the rat gets caught. That was a vertical surface.