Layered Rocks Options

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

The fine scale layering in some of the rocks in Burns Cliff really is exrtaordinary

[SFJCody]

Does anyone else find this combination of diffuse linear clouds + sharp, fine-scale bedding to be particularly pleasing to the eye?

[mook]

I hope that after the rovers have dug their final trench, ratted their final rock and uplinked their final pancam, that NASA will see fit to organise an art exhibition featuring the best images from the rovers in full colour, digitally enhanced and tonally controlled. Some of these photos are just so beautiful, that any landscape photographer on earth would be a little jealous.

[David]

Does anyone else find this combination of diffuse linear clouds + sharp, fine-scale bedding to be particularly pleasing to the eye?

Oh, I certainly do. But what I find particularly attractive, and at the same time particularly frustrating, is that there are epochs' worth of geological history lying right there on those slabs, written out as in a book, and I don't have the ability to read it -- and moreover, it's apparently going to be quite some time before anybody cares to read it to me. How long ago were these sediments laid down, and in what circumstances? What materials are they composed of? What's the difference between the light and the dark layers? When did the sedimentation stop, and why? How long do I have to wait to get even an approximate answer to these questions?

[SFJCody]

Oh, I certainly do.  But what I find particularly attractive, and at the same time particularly frustrating, is that there are epochs' worth of geological history lying right there on those slabs, written out as in a book, and I don't have the ability to read it -- and moreover, it's apparently going to be quite some time before anybody cares to read it to me.  How long ago were these sediments laid down, and in what circumstances?  What materials are they composed of?  What's the difference between the light and the dark layers?  When did the sedimentation stop, and why?  How long do I have to wait to get even an approximate answer to these questions?

I'd love to get a closer look at features like this.




From above the line?

[Gray]

David,
You are asking the same questions many geologists are asking. My bet is that they feel a similar frustration. Many of the questions you ask can only be answered by taking samples back to the lab for analysis. Don't think that people aren't trying to answer them, it's just very difficult when most of the data is in the form of digital images. Geologists are more accostomed to picking up the rocks and holding them in their hands.
Another source of difficulty in interpreting these rocks is that we must ignore many of the assumptions we make about terrestrial geology. A basic tenet of terrestrial geology is that geologists understand the ancient earth processes by learning about current earth processes. But it turns out, we can't apply earth models to Mars. In some ways geologists must start from the beginning.
As you said, the answers will emerge, but it will be slow, just because that's the way science works. But don't think that all this neat stuff is being ignored. In the mean time, I guess we'll just have to be content with the wonder these images evoke.