[X] My Assistant

[CosmicRocker]

I noticed this anomalous feature in the sol 962 pancams from Cape Verde that came down today. I don't know exactly where it is in context, since it doesn't appear in any of the panoramas. A rover wheel is visible in the full sized image, so it is somewhere very near the rover's position at the time.

I have been staring at this darkly colored, circular patch with a very dark clast in its center for a quite a while, but I don't have a good explanation for what it could be. The dark circular part appears to be composed of a fine, granular sediment. I don't recall having seen anything similar to this before. It almost appears as if the dark central clast has somehow discolored the soil around it.

Who feels like speculating?

[sattrackpro]

Too bad this wasn’t noticed and looked at more closely before it was left so far behind, since now speculation will run ahead of probability.

The cracks that run three quarters of the way across the dark spot, and down-picture at 90 degrees from that crack suggest some upward force. (But I doubt it was much - or maybe any.)

It could be a section of stone just under the surface, that was moved by the weight and passage of the rover wheel - possibly raising it just enough to cause apparent cracks - by passing over perhaps an edge or end of it.

If a piece of rock were moved slightly, it could disturb surface material and expose some darker material underneath - perhaps contributing to the effect of a ‘circle.’ (Though one would expect to see more surface cracking - - and the ‘cracks’ may not be cracks at all.)

Note that material below the ‘circle’ and spots to the upper left of it are also of the same or near the same color.

Note too, different colored spots frequently occur naturally here on earth that are sometimes near-perfect circles. They are most often caused by wind, and a stone or other object just underneath the surface. My best guess - this is a photo of the same type of action on Mars.