Opportunity's MRO Target, Fluid Flow Features at Victoria Options

[SigurRosFan]

Wow, Oppy's next stop ...

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For instance, it has seen fluid flow features in Victoria Crater just south of the equator, where NASA's Opportunity rover is trudging along the rim. The fractures appear to be surrounded by cemented rock on the eastern crater rim and floor.

One of NASA's goals for Opportunity is to get to that side of the crater. If it is able to get close enough, Opportunity might provide some microscopic observations of the rock to confirm whether the rock has been cemented together by fluid.
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- Underground pipes channelled water on Mars

[ngunn]

I don't think they're saying that the fluid created the faults, only that it exploited them. Both the formation of the faults now revealed in the Victoria hole and their hardening by cementation from ground fluids would have predated the impact event, probably by a long interval. The only connection, as I see it, is that this raises the odds that there could be icy - or watery - layers buried beneath the visible aeolian deposits. I (and others before me) have previously proposed sapping by the fluidisation and partial sublimation of such a layer to account for Victoria's vertical cliffs and scalloped rim.