Home Plate Speculations, Get it in now, before we know the truth! Options

[Bill Harris]

I do recall that when Spirit first topped Husband Hill and we saw the Pitchers Mound feature, my first impression was to refer to it as the Cinder Cone because it looked like one. Although misleading, incorrect and loaded, the term was used by many of us until the name"Pitchers Mound" came to be.

I think just about all of us will be suprised in a few Sols, even those of us who are correct.

--Bill

[Phil Stooke]

I have been following names closely, and I've never seen 'Pitcher's Mound' in any MER team document. But it is an excellent name.

Phil

[vikingmars]

In fact, at the beginning of the mission, Pitcher's Mound (not yet named) was seen by Spirit team as an interesting figure to explore (also referred as a "cinder cone"), because from orbit MOC images it did not showed up as a "cone", so this was a real discovery...
Well at that time, it was still a dream to go there !
Here are :

- the 1st good view of this "cone" feature from Bonneville's rim
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...00P2287L6M1.JPG

- its last good view, just before reaching the the Columbia Hills
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...00P2425L7M1.JPG

Enjoy !

I do recall that when Spirit first topped Husband Hill and we saw the Pitchers Mound feature...

--Bill

[aldo12xu]

And here's a coloured version cropped from Dan Crotty's collection
http://www.marsgeo.com/Photos/Spirit/Layering/Cone123Le.jpg

......It was hard not to get caught up in the exciting prospect of it being a cinder cone when we had our first good views of the structure. But the most straightforward explanation for lighter-toned rocks capping Pitcher's Mound and Home Plate is erosional remnant of a more extensive layer, parts of which are hinted at along the lower pertions of McCool Hill, the easter part of the Inner Basin and possibly Alegheny Ridge.

My money is on Home Plate being a remnant impact crater with the western portion of the lighter-toned layer -- along with the western rim -- being eroded away or over-ridden by basaltic flows from the plains. In fact, I wonder if Micheltree Ridge represents the crater's eastern rim??

[CosmicRocker]

This is off topic, but I couldn't help but notice that this topic has thrown the "Ads by Google" a real curve ball.

[odave]

I expect to see ads for DVD sets of "The Honeymooners" when NH starts returning data from Ralph and Alice.

[Shaka]

- its last good view, just before reaching the the Columbia Hills
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...00P2425L7M1.JPG

Enjoy ! 

Man, There's something else this photo reminds us. There weren't any "spongebob" rocks on that side of the hills. If they're impact ejecta, they can't have flown for miles!

[Bob Shaw]

I bid for 'Baby Mound' as the Official Martian Native Name of the mini-version of PM to the right of HP!

So: what are we looking for on HP?

Sounds to me like, apart from in-situ compositional data, we're looking for visual evidence to back up various lines of (ahem) enquiry. Trouble is, many of the processes which lay down beds will lay down bedding which will look very similar to those produced by a variety of such processes, except in the detailed detail. A 'smash and grab' visit to HP may not be quite enough.

In many ways, HP is a bit like Endurance, and would be worth while spending a l-o-o-n-g time investigating - and perhaps spending the winter near (there must be a good slope, facing in the right direction, where Spirit could do some nice long Mini-TES sessions).

I want to clearly see the contact between beds, to look at the detailed structures, and to see right round the whole shebang. And the rest!

Bob Shaw

[ElkGroveDan]

I bid for 'Baby Mound' as the Official Martian Native Name of the mini-version of PM to the right of HP!

If you look at a diagram of a baseball diamond, the feature next to homeplate would be the "On Deck Circle".

[Bill Harris]

...bedding which will look very similar to those produced by a variety of such processes, except in the detailed detail. A 'smash and grab' visit to HP may not be quite enough.

Amen. But if the "north-facing slope" is a vital requirement to keep our intrepid explorer from dying, she may have to head up McCool Hill, where there is plenty of outcrop to do science, and make her way back down to Homeplate by Springtime. I feel that the Homeplate area will the the Holy Grail of this field trip, it has (apparently) so many distinct processes that are well-defined and clearly exposed.

--Bill

[Bob Shaw]

If you look at a diagram of a baseball diamond, the feature next to homeplate would be the "On Deck Circle".

What's 'baseball'?

Is it like... ...Rounders?

(All your base(ball) are belong to us!)

Bob Shaw

[Shaka]

HEY, Who let 'Jolly Jock' in the gate?
O.K. We're gonna do this; we're gonna do this right !



And there ain't no Baby Mound!
You could look it up.

[Bob Shaw]

HEY, Who let 'Jolly Jock' in the gate?
O.K. We're gonna do  this; we're gonna do this right !



And there ain't no Baby Mound!
You could look it up.

Do words like 'Silly' 'Mid' and 'On' mean anything to you?

Not that I actually *care*, you unnerstan', living in Scotland, see?

Now, as for Doug...

Bob Shaw

[Shaka]

What. You mean that Limey game that takes 6 weeks to play, where foul balls count as runs? Sheeeesh...

[tdemko]

My shots in the dark:

material: sulfate-cemented, porous, highly altered volcaniclastic sediment or impactite

outcrop: erosional remnant of crater floor exhumed by erosion, or a deformed, more widely distributed layer within the lower, more altered strata in the volcanic/ejecta pile that is the Columbia Hills

Questions: If the Inner Basin is a series of eroded remnants of previously more widespread units, what did all that eroding? Just wind?

How much of the topography of the Columbia Hills is due to differential erosion? What caused the uplift in the first place? Are they buried hills? (seems like it from the onlapping relationships of the surrounding Gusev crater floor deposits...)

...note like a good scientist, I provide more questions than answers...