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RichforMars
Hi there,

I read this on the NASA.gov site. Last month a tall boulder rolled five hundred meters, and tilted upright. There is no actual explanation as to why, seismic movement? Possibly the breeze of the wind. unsure.gif

I found the whole event interesting as the location is void and empty. Reminds me a little of the Rover and the peble.

Boulder rolls down hill
vikingmars
QUOTE (RichforMars @ Aug 13 2014, 09:48 PM) *
Hi there, I read this on the NASA.gov site. Last month a tall boulder rolled five hundred meters, and tilted upright. There is no actual explanation as to why, seismic movement? Possibly the breeze of the wind. unsure.gif I found the whole event interesting as the location is void and empty. Reminds me a little of the Rover and the peble.

Thanks a lot RichforMars for your info. Apparently this big bouder made some vibrations that dislodged some smaller rocks too ! But with tracks less visible...
Click to view attachment
RichforMars
Interesting find, who realised that?

There is no actual Mars quake mission. So it remains a mystery for now.
Explorer1
There will be soon, Rich: http://insight.jpl.nasa.gov/home.cfm
It's the next one to launch!
wildespace
Are there images of this area prior to the rolling event?
nprev
Might also be interesting to search for a nearby recent impact; that might've been what jarred it loose.

In fact, such a find would be incredibly informative since it could tell us a lot about subsurface properties that relate to conduction of motion. The energy from an impact could be calculated reasonably well as a function of crater diameter, so that would be a terrific 'calibrated' stimulus.
SpaceScout
QUOTE (RichforMars @ Aug 13 2014, 09:48 PM) *
I found the whole event interesting...

Sorry for this note, but boulders that moved downhill with tracks have been seen since the first very high resolution images of the moon. So I personally don't get why this image (surely a great HiRISE image, don't get me wrong) should get more attention than others.
Phil Stooke
It's not getting more attention, it's just getting its turn in the limelight. Otherwise, I guess there is the 'monolith' appearance of the boulder with its shadow to draw a bit of extra attention. The thing is, if you want the privilege of frequent news releases (as we generally do) you have to accept quite a lot of repetition - another fresh crater, another skylight, etc. Keep 'em coming, I say.

Phil
SpaceScout
Okay, I got the point. Perhaps I would have liked a more science-driven release. For example, I would have liked to learn about the science target of this image (I know many HiRISE images have one)

Cheers
djellison
If you follow the links you'll get to the HiRISE team page for the observation
http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_037190_1765
Where it says
This image was targeted to cover part of a small “chaos” terrain, where there are lots of steep slopes.
SpaceScout
Thank you for the link!
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