A sticker saying "If found, please return to the Far Rim of Victoria Crater"?

It's hard to say, but I am still guessing that they are interested in the big hole. It's the only "unusual" feature on the surface apparent to me. However, I do not understand why the rover would need to reposition itself to do that. The hole seemed to be amply accessible from the previous location. If that is not the target, we'd have to speculate wildly, which I would prefer to avoid. I think we need to watch and see where the instruments are deployed.

Maybe they want some "deeper" 3D views of the pit? Maybe they've spotted a hint of something interesting on one side?

Remember - they don't have the full use of the arm - so careful targeting requires moving the rover.

Here's a look at the backside. Interesting indeed. (joking... it's not real)

I think the rover tracks on top of rock face gave it away!

When I saw that, I knew something fishy was up.

That's what I saw first, too. Then my brain finally registered the additions as nuts and bolts. I can see where that would attract some interest.

Hmm. That's a very attractive hypothesis for the fates of all the lost landers, Dan...

Close-up of "The Pit" (Mwahahahahaha!!!)

Click to view attachment

Beautiful work, Stu!

Man, for some reason I just never seem to tire of looking at this thing; it's completely fascinating just as a meteorite aside from its exotic location & the interesting questions it poses. Those contours & shards in The Pit make it a little world unto itself.

It looks like something has "eaten" away at it.

OR escaped from it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Quick Oppy! Look behind you!"
Aaaaaarrrrrrrrggggghhhhhh!!!!!!

Actually, now you mention it, that ragged hole in Block Island does look familiar...

Click to view attachment

Stu, don't know if your post falls under Forum Guideline 1.3 or 1.9, but it is quite humorous. Clearly you are possessed by aliens--hope your chest doesn't explode any time soon.

Let me return the compliment - fantastic!!

Anaglyph of the new sol 1975 pancam view of the pit:
Click to view attachment
Bit of a different viewpoint and lighting than the previous view, showing some more detail in the pit bottom.

Inside 'The Pit' are sub pits and some of those sub pits seem to be filled with blueberries. I guess this gives more credance to the theory that the blueberries are a lag deposit and that in the past block island was inside (or under) the blueberry containing source deposit and when the matrix eroded away some blueberries got caught inside Block Island. At the very least it does show that Block Island was there before the blueberries.

I don't think there can be much doubt that the free-floating blueberries are a lag deposit here. But I don't see evidence that this meteorite fell here before the concretions formed.

I agree. Migrating dunes could have dropped those blueberries in the bowl. They would have remained as the finer particles moved along elsewhere.

Do the blueberries migrate with the dunes?

I thought the blueberries were formed in situ (in a rock matrix) and then the source rock degraded away. So I always thought the blueberries stayed put while rest of the rock was "gone with the wind".

I think the blueberries are too large to be included in the saltation of dunes or large ripples. What is the largest particle size seen in some of the bigger dunes?

Blueberries are scattered all over the place in ejecta from all the little craters we see everywhere. It's easy to see how a few could end up in pits on a rock.

Phil

Remember too that we we have seen the blueberries rolling in the wind. It is conceivable that over long periods of time, the blueberries could be blown along dunes that were higher around BI and were caught up in a newly exposed Pit and the dune bit by bit blown away leaving them behind.

Big craters also scatter blueberries all over the place, and could even make them, as well as making layered rocks. Is it easy to see how more than a few could end up in layered rocks? (Sorry, couldn't resist paraphrasing you.) Irrelevant to the present discussion, unless craters and ejecta and meteorite fragments are hinting at something important...

-- HDP Don

Well the berries in the pits seem small, and the big juicy ones are on the ground surrounding BI. So the dune scenario would seem more likely.

I wouldn't think the berries are saltating in the current wind regime, but they clearly have been able to move at some point in the past, as witnessed by the berry bedforms of small ripples we sometimes see on top of the larger ripples. Berries can also move downhill, if their supporting, finer sediment is removed by wind. I think this is how armoring lag deposits form. The question is, can they be pushed uphill in the current wind regime, or must we depend on stronger, paleo-winds or impacts to have propelled them to higher altitudes?

Clearly, more recent impacts have sprayed blueberries all over the place, but it is hard for me to measure how important that process is, or has been. Obviously, the concretions appear to have been derived from the eroded rock which was removed from the surface beneath the ripples/dunes/drifts. So, at some point in the past the berries were raised above the eroding surface and into the ripples by the force of wind or the force of impacts, or something.

I wish I could turn that meteorite over, to see if there are loose berries beneath it.

Inside the cave!
An interesting set of MIs roughly stitched together.
Click to view attachment

Animation original and stretched.
Click to view attachment

On berries moving:
Remember, we are probably talking millions of years that BI has been sitting here. If you think of a worst dust devel that hits this spot only once in every 50,000 years, it doesn't seem unreasonable to me that it could loft the smaller berries. Note that we only see very small berries on BI. Day to day winds are nothing like a once in 50,000 year DD event.

During deflation, exposed hard rock would be less "sticky" and a tad lower than the surrounding sands so any lag blueberries should preferentially tumble towards the rock surface. (This is at least how I understand how lines of blueberries at the rock/sand interface of pavement could form).

But I think Floyd's right, winds (or dust devils) might play a bigger factor and shove blueberries towards the local dips or off smooth areas.

Anyone able to ID the location of those MIs on a pancam view of BI? (Or any of the previous MIs for that matter?)

Don't forget thermal cycles, or even freezing cycles.

You're slipping, Astro0. I was expecting you to add in a pair of glowing red eyes into the gloom.

Unusual and beautiful microscopic image.
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...C4P2956M2M1.JPG

Um....wow!!! You have a gift for understatement, Peter!

I can't wait till Stu gets a look at this one.

I'm looking...

What the **** is that?!?!?!?!



Looks a lot like one of the protruberances we see on pieces of the famous "Imilac" meteorite...

http://www.arizonaskiesmeteorites.com/AZ_S...tes/Imilac3.jpg

Well, it's Snoopy, obviously.

For a second I thought it was that damned squirrel again.

It's obviously the super-secret NANO-Pancam, that they have been avoiding photographing until now.

"For a second I thought it was that damned squirrel again."

Don't speak ill of the squirrel, eh.

Phil

How did you miss it EGD? The reason for the secrecy is that that they completely forgot to install one lens, making the whole thing useless for creating stereoscopic images. Nano camera - mega stuff up!!!

Wow...Canadians really do stick together!

EDIT: Upon reflection, I think I want a t-shirt with that slogan, Phil; better hurry up & copyright it!

That was a good catch, Dan.
I have always enjoyed that appendage to sentences which speakers from the northern regions use. I have actually practiced using it when I travel to the northern USA and Canada. It somehow just seems to fit, with its questioning tone.

Clearly, all punctuation marks deserve to be pronounced. uh

Now there's a guy that needs some nail care...

Yeah, and that's a pretty rough-looking onion bhaji, don't you think?

Just wondering.
There is a long long time since Oppy will have to rove on know terrain. Last time was at Victoria on her way back to Duck's Bay... and yet she didn't rove exactely on her previous tracks.
My guess is that when Oppy will resume driving she could go on her previous tracks. So I wonder if rover drivers will try to break Oppy's one day rove record. I know, there is no needs to do so, specialy because of the RF...but this RF will have rested for quite some time anyway. So, why not?

Interesting thought, climber. If you've been on exactly the same route before, there shouldn't be anything preventing a very long drive. In this case though, to beat the all-time record (ignoring RF wheel) I think they'd have to backtrack even more, at least to the 1942 location, since it's only around 200 m from there to the 1950 location. I'm guessing they'll more or less follow the BI approach route once they leave BI, which misses the 1942 stop.

Because if we don't hit exactly the same dunes in exactly the same place, we don't know what might happen.. Indeed, even driving back over the same tracks still provides potential for trouble.

This isn't the terrain for record breaking.

...because they only have one test bed at JPL and that one is busy right now.

Watch your dentures, Cumberland Boy...