[X] My Assistant

[ngunn]

I'd like a discussion thread about the geology detatched from the time limits of current MSL threads. We had a 'Geomorphology of Cape York' thread that attracted a lot of interesting posts. How about 'Geomorphology of Gale Crater'? I have one or two ideas but many more questions, and I'd like to post them in a longer-running thread away from the day to day imaging discussion. Any other takers?

For starters, does anybody have a contour map of this place like the one at Meridiani with 5m intervals?


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[ngunn]

It's fun to look at those craterlets and imagine the kind of one-off event you describe, although I'm having difficulty with the idea of individual bubbles of the required size. There's a long timespan and a wide range for climate parameters (including, crucially, the total mass of the atmosphere) available as possible conditions for the processes that formed this landcape so it's open season for imaginative suggestions, I think.

EDIT: I've looked again and the crater sizes go right down there: too small for impacts under any kind of atmosphere. Interesting.

[Eyesonmars]

I agree. It is great fun to try to imagine processes that are beyond our earth biased experiences.
Over on the "Temperature and Pressure" topic I've been making trouble with the goal of perhaps gaining some insight into the subject of this thread.

It is hard to imagine how water might behave around the triple point on a large scale in a low g environment since it is beyond our earthly experience. But small changes can have major phase consequences. In addition, in the low Martian gravity I would imagine the bubbles would grow larger than on earth .... true?