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Bill Harris
I've just read a paper by Ken Edgett (of Malin Space Science Systems) on the history of the Meridiani plains.The PDF of the paper can be downloaded at the Mars Journal site: http://marsjournal.org/contents/2005/0002/ . Good reading.

--Bill

The paper concludes:
QUOTE
Conclusions: The sedimentary rocks of Sinus Meridiani preserve a rich and complex geologic history, of which very little is presently known. The bedrock of both Meridiani Planum and the adjacent heavily cratered terrains can be described as a layered, cratered, and “valley-ed” volume. Orbiter images show a diversity of rocks in the form of erosional expression, relative albedo, and bedding styles. Material deposited in impact craters is usually different from the material deposited outside the crater, suggesting different depositional environments in close proximity (e.g., the crater may have been a lake or pond at the same time that the surrounding areas were not). No unambiguous, primary volcanic landforms or rock units are discerned. When deposited, the rocks were generally horizontally bedded except where dipping locally in response to previous, buried topography. Interbedded craters and valleys indicate the presence of buried surfaces, including erosional surfaces, representing unconformities in the rock record. Four basic rock units are identified in western Sinus Meridiani; they represent a stratigraphic section of > 800 m thickness. Near (but not quite at) the top of this stratigraphic section lies the ~7 m of section explored by the MER-B team in Eagle, Fram, and Endurance craters. The occurrence of similar rocks in the plains cut by the Valles Marineris (considered to be Hesperian in age) and Mawrth Vallis (considered to be Noachian) suggests that conditions for deposition, lithification and diagenesis of sedimentary materials in the presence of water or groundwater might have persisted on Mars beyond the end of the period of heavy impact cratering (i.e., beyond the Noachian).
glennwsmith
Bill,

Thanks for calling our attention to this paper. I'm from Louisiana, and as I noted in a comment some months ago, the broad, horizontal uniformity of the Meridiani is excellent evidence for the action of water in the liquid phase -- duh!

Glenn
Myran
Thank you for the link, another one I might have missed. And 800 m of geological history, thats mindboggling! The earlier epochs so many of us have an interest in might be very hard to reach then, except in a few choice location where any craft is unlikely to reach due to the need of a safe landing site. But the records are there then, waiting for a time when we'll have the equipment to study them properly.
Bill Harris
And 800m of complex history. I adpoted the simplistic view of basalt basement with cratering, shallow lake/playa, cratering. And that the present surface was ejecta blankets and weathering byproducts. But there appears to be more continued evaporite activity mixed with more cratering and so on.

This paper was referenced here earlier, but I didn't look too closely. I wish I had.

--Bill
AlexBlackwell
QUOTE (Bill Harris @ Feb 7 2006, 11:24 PM)
This paper was referenced here earlier, but I didn't look too closely.  I wish I had.

Unfortunately, when I first posted about it last November, I placed it in the MGS thread, which might explain why it went by unnoticed.
ljk4-1
Has Opportunity found anything like this?

http://epod.usra.edu/archive/epodviewer.php3?oid=307008
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