[X] My Assistant

[jmknapp]

If I saw rocks like this on Earth, I'd think "flint":



Spirit Sol 39 image

Flint can be formed by biological processes--specifically accumulation of sponges at the bottom of a shallow sea.

[jmknapp]

Doug,

Fantastic work, the 3D is absolutely the best to be had, including that released from JPL.

Maybe it's that the colors just happen to match my glasses I don't know, but nothing else comes close.

Also the color shot you made is very revealing. It shows that the Rover wheel scraped off a bit of the rock's coating. Another Rover first!

The coating appears bluish and the underlying rock reddish.

I still believe that the weird blue effects come from some kind of interplay with direct bluish sunlight and how it reflects off differing materials.

One interesting effect is noted with the images of the sundial. Straight color composites will show a bluish tinge coming off the black gnomon. Looking at the L7 images of the sundial, the gnomon can be seen to fairly light up with blue light, corresponding to the incident angle of the sun.