There's some superb images coming in of the stratification exposed on rocks in the Erebus highway... it looks like this place was worth a visit for itself (of course) and not just for sticky drift avoidance...

I should probably get excited about pictures of the sand and pebbles too but I can't seem to

attached is one such partial image posted 17-Sep

Not only do we have stratified rock with the "mudcracks" extending through the layers, but also fractured, in-place rock. It should be getting more interesting...

--Bill

I'm not sure we can say with any certainty that the evaporite bedrock is "in place." As in in place exactly where it was laid down. We're getting close to the rim of Erebus, the evaporite here might well be the eroded-flat remnants of jumbled ejecta.

I just don't want everyone to get their hopes up that the evaporite paving is actually an in-place rock bed, when it's still quite possible that it's been as jumbled and broken up as the deposits we've seen in and around smaller impact craters.

-the other Doug

Oppy is going to be pecking around the South Shetland outcrop for a few days.

Why does this Front Hazcam image make me think "Say Ahhh..."?

--Bill

Diagnosis: this patient ate too many muffins.

18 months ago, I saw a blueberry muffin at a supermarket and chuckled to myself

Yesterday - I saw an ICED blueberry muffin in the same place in the same store... I began to wonder, with the rind observations, perhaps a product line manager for Morrisons is an MER fan

Doug

A panoramic view of layered bedrock.

Taken on Sol 591 with the R1 Pancam.

jvandriel

I was reminded of this post this weekend as I nibbled on macadamia nuts thinking how much they looked like Iapetus.

jvandriel, re the photo you posted of layered bedrock -- if that's not evidence of water, I don't know what is . . .

You're nuts!

First fossil find confirmed

Fossilised Court Jester complete with hat and macadamias

And you think he is nuts?

I think it looks like a robot

The evaporite bedrock is looking a bit different and interesting as Oppy heads westward around Erebus. One thing I've noticed are the "rounded" paving stones, the latest seen in the right foreground below, and an earlier color image of one.

Any ideas on what we're seeing here? This is a distinctive pattern: one was unusual, but two make a trend... My thoughts are that they might be shock-related from earlier, eroded-away craters.

If anyone says "stromotolites" I'll throw a hissy-fit.

--Bill

I think it's ancient ejecta from the Erebus impact, eroded down to flat "paving stones." Possibly with further evaporite formation on top of jumbled ejecta blocks.

-the other Doug

What about the "rotini" fossil?

http://aix1.uottawa.ca/~weinberg/mars/$misc.html

I think they are two small to be individual impact remnants but I don't see why they couldn't be shock effects from the Erebus impact that is now getting exposed. If there is a harder subsurface (and there is almost certainly Basalt somewhere under Meridiani) then surely there will be upward reflections of the shock wave after the impact that could very easily produce fracturing like this.

Nice features though, whatever the cause.

Only three perfored holes by bullets.

I might try "stromatolites". No, honestly I don't think so, I can´t see any of the characteristic concentric layering one typically finds in an eroded stromatolite. Still, it's worth keeping in mind, if there is any type of macroscopic fossil we might have a realistic chance of finding on Mars it would be a stromatolite.

tty