[X] My Assistant

[elakdawalla]

I just wanted to know if any other UMSFers are going to be in lovely Clear Lake, Texas for LPSC. I'll be there all week, Monday through the middle of Friday. While I don't think there'll be enough of us to generate our own party, perhaps we can plan to all attend one of the various social gatherings and meet up and raise a glass to Doug.

I'm not sure when or where the parties are yet, but they'll be late because they've really packed the schedule following the sessions this year. Here's what's happening in the evenings:
Sunday 5 pm: Registration/Reception
Monday 5 pm: We get to watch the NASA HQ sacrificial lamb get stoned to death by the meeting attendees, i.e. "NASA Headquarters briefing," followed by the "Student/Scientist Reception" from 6 to 8 (free food, I think)
Tuesday 5:30 pm: Special session on the Phoenix landing site, followed by poster session at 7 pm
Wednesday 5:30 pm: Special meeting on "Return to the moon," followed by Cocktail Hour and Buffet Dinner from 6 to 9:30
Thrsday 5:30 pm: Special session on Planetary cartography (Phil??) followed by poster session at 7 pm

So it'll be busy but we've got to have some fun. I'd just like to see a show of hands of who else may be there, then we can talk here after we start arriving in Houston and we figure out when and where the various parties are, and where we should raise the UMSF flag. Well, I don't have a flag, but at least I have a T-shirt.

--Emily

[CosmicRocker]

I wasn't able to make it to that presentation Bob, but Golombek mentioned the secondary cratering in his paper on observations from Spirit's traverse in Gusev. He said that it has been observed that most of the craters there are relatively shallow compared to their width, and that is interpreted as evidence that they are secondary impacts from larger impacts elsewhere. He specifically mentioned Bonneville, Lahontan, and Searles, but said generally that most craters in Gusev were secondary.

The picture he painted of processes in Gusev since it was flooded with basalt was that it is essentially a sediment starved basin with little geologic activity, aside from the dust blowing around. When the secondary impacts occurred, the ejecta created temporary sources of sediment which was transported by the wind until it was eventually trapped in the bottoms of craters and other aeolian cul de sacs. After that, the only thing that occurs is the monotonous movement of dust until new secondary impacts again disrupt the equilibrium and create temporary sources of aeolian sediment. He mentioned sand ripples like Serpent and noted that they appear to be inactive, with surfaces armored with granule-sized clasts and dust depostited between the granules. However, someone else (forgot who) mentioned that El Dorado was thought to be active, since it's surface remains dark, while light colored dust is deposited around it. I'm not sure how convincing that is, though.

I'll try to post my notes from the other MER papers in appropriate topics in the MER section as time permits, unless people think it would be better to start a dedicated MER LPSC topic or a more general LPSC topic. I wasn't able to stay for anything other than the MER papers. I'd hate to post too much in here, since most who read the MER topics probably don't often look in here. Interesting about "the atmosphere that was." I hadn't heard about that.