[X] My Assistant

[dilo]

On Sol 690, Oppy PanCam captured some beautiful images of the rocks, with radent afternoon illumination giving strong relief to stratifications and 3D structure.
Here a stitch:

I already asked to Malgar to make a photoclinometry on this...

[mars loon]

On Sol 690, Oppy PanCam captured some beautiful images of the rocks, with radent afternoon illumination giving strong relief to stratifications and 3D structure.
Here a stitch:

I already asked to Malgar to make a photoclinometry on this...

Steve Squyres latest update (Jan 3) talks about this. see his quote below:

"Over at Meridiani we're still at the Olympia outcrop, but we have come to realize that our extended stay here has yielded a very important find. We've spent a lot of time recently taking high-resolution Pancam images of the rocks around us at a range of lighting angles, to bring out fine details in the layering. And if you look at one of the Pancam images that came down on Sol 690, you'll see that we have now found the best example of small scale "festoon cross-bedding" that we've seen the whole mission.

When you're talking about layering in rock, "festoon" geometry means little nested concave-upward shapes. They look like little smiles a few centimeters across. This kind of layering is seen in sedimentary rocks on Earth, and when it's found at small scales like this it provides solid evidence for deposition in flowing liquid water. It was small-scale festoon cross bedding that led us to conclude that liquid water had been present not just below the surface at Meridiani, but occasionally at the surface as well. If you're interested in the gory scientific details, check out the paper by Grotzinger et al. that we recently published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

We've seen small-scale festoon cross-bedding before, of course, at Eagle Crater and again at Endurance Crater, but this is by far the best example that we've seen yet. Once we've got Opportunity moving again, our first task is going to be to drive over to this spot and take a big Microscopic Imager mosaic on it, to document the cross-bedding in detail.

The thing I find really striking here is that if it hadn't been for the busted wire in the motor on Opportunity's arm, we would have blown right by this without seeing it. Ironic."

[Shaka]

Steve Squyres latest update (Jan 3) talks about this. see his quote below:

And if you look at one of the Pancam images that came down on Sol 690, you'll see that we have now found the best example of small scale "festoon cross-bedding" that we've seen the whole mission.

When you're talking about layering in rock, "festoon" geometry means little nested concave-upward shapes. They look like little smiles a few centimeters across.

Ironic."

...and the clock is ticking. First one to post the image with the festoon bedding circled will win our Grand Prize!

[Shaka]

...and the clock is ticking.  First one to post the image with the festoon bedding circled will win our Grand Prize!

Well....O.K....I'll take a chance....
How about...

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