New pancam view of what is surely "Tesh's Crater"...

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Since it's on the Far Side, why don't they name it after Gary Larson?

We've been discussing here how and where Oppy will eventually make "landfall" at Cape York, and where the most promising sites for finding and studying phyllosilicates might be. I have just posted an interview with Ray Arvidson on my blog, in which he gives some more details about that, so I hope those of you interested in this will go have a look:

http://roadtoendeavour.wordpress.com/2011/...th-ray-arvidson

Right on the money, Stu.

So it looks like they are sure the phyllisilicates are there, along the Endeavour side edge or slope of Cape York and that the question to answer is whether they are the result of post impact weathering of the crater rim or pre-impact phylosilicate layers being exposed by the impact.
(If I understand correctly.)

Best yet !
Larson it is

Here's my attempt with this latest batch of pancams.
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Wow. That was the single most informative update we've had in a long time. Thanks a lot, Stu!

So this changes things dramatically. CY is no longer just our first landfall at Endeavour, a place to get our bearings before heading south to Tribulation and the real prize. Now CY is the real prize, and suddenly it's that much more realistic!

Thanks Fred, glad you enjoyed it. The picture's certainly becoming a lot clearer now.

I've just seen some very cool CY-CRISM graphics on a pdf...

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2011/pdf/2272.pdf

( Apologies if that link's been posted here before, I missed it if it was. )

Great scoop, Stu. I love the way you slip the crucial question in after all the 'innocent' chatty ones.

I can only echo the praise, Stu; you're one hell of a space journalist in addtion to your many other talents!

Thanks, but naaah... people like Emily and AJS Rayl are journalists, I'm just cheeky enough to email people and ask the questions that have been bugging me...

Another drive on 2592, and a closer look at "Tesheiner's crater":
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...2M1.JPG?sol2592

A bit tricky figuring out where we are right now. Here's a guess at the last two positions - the first one (middle of image) looks pretty good, the second very uncertain - it may be deeper into the rocky area. At the right are reprojected versions of the hazcam views in both directions, bot very rough.

Phil

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Looks like a little further

The view in the drive direction on Sol 2592.
Taken with the L2 Pancam.

Jan van Driel

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It looks to me that we can now see both Young Blocky and a hint of 'Arvidson's' big degraded bright crater in the distance about 7 degrees either side of Tesheiner's crater. Phil-o-vision would be nice to check these IDs.

!!!!

Phil

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Thanks! I think that's consistent with Young Blocky being the one on the right, but I was wrong about the other bright feature. If that's visible at all it might be the distant smudge on the far left there. It's unusually tricky to read the subtle rises and falls around here, even on the stretch.

Yep, definitely is rather hilly and hummocky, on a small scale, in this part of Meridiani. I can't see any sign of that degraded crater tho, Nigel.

( btw, If anyone's interested, new MER poem here: http://astropoetry.wordpress.com/2011/05/11/endeavour-dawn )

FWIW, the crater just ahead was named "Skylab".
http://twitter.com/#!/marsroverdriver/...354784746405888

Everyone, say hello to "Skylab"...

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Considering how Skylab met its demise, is this name ironic or what?

say hello to "Skylab"

And directly beyond is (I think) Young Blocky.
Skylab - It was a terrible name back then and it sounds no better now, but I suppose it has to be commemorated.

Maybe the next crater will be dubbed 'International Space Station'.

So, passing a mess on the ground labelled Skylab and heading towards Cape York. I think I know which part of the world this is!

I quite like the name Skylab! ;-)

Sol 2593.
The Pancam L2 view of Skylab.

Jan van Driel

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Skylab made quite a splash:
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It did indeed...

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Better view...

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One of the coolest little craters we've seen yet!

Yep, lithobreaking at its finest...

Thanks for assembling those views of Skylab, it's a "wee beauty" for sure...
I wonder, just how much has the academic field of crater study been augmented by these spectacular sights and science of ALL those craters imaged on the MER adventures?

Interesting idea. Even small lunar craters don't look as starkly pronounced at ground level as they do from orbit. Airless bodies experience 'weathering' from micrometeorite impacts, Mars does it through actual weathering...end results look not that different, really.

Skylab in 3D...

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Larger version @ http://roadtoendeavour.wordpress.com/2011/...skylab-revealed

Sol 2594.
The R0 Navcam view of Skylab.

Jan van Driel

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Sol 2594

The Pancam L2 view of the road ahead.

Jan van Driel

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The outcrop layer is not so deep here. The skylab impactor punched all the way through.

Potentially newby question, but how do you know it's not just filled in with enough sand to hide bedrock below?

How do you know? The same symptoms are visible at Eagle, Fram, Endurance, Victoria, Santa Maria, Conception etc etc.

Clearly the crater did no such thing and we're simply seeing dust settled in the middle of a local depression thanks to the wind.

Sol 2595 navcam view ahead.
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This seems to be a fresh crater; it should not have had time to fill up with dust or sand. The interior is dark with a well-defined boundary. No sign of ripples. To me that suggests in-place material rather than dust or sand infall, but I could be wrong.

The light-toned layers are several times thicker than the diameter of Skylab crater, as exposed at Santa Maria, Victoria, Endurance, and many other craters visited to date. (Most recently at Santa Maria, seen here: http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...st&id=24248 ). Although the light outcrop layer *could* be thinner here, we have seen no evidence elsewhere supporting that kind of variability; the point of visiting Endeavour is to visit an outcrop of what lies beneath. The dark material looks like a basaltic sand lag deposited in Skylab by wind and subsequently resisting removal from the wind-sheltered interior of the crater. As for the lack of ripples, the dark deposit may be sufficiently indurated to resist remobilization into ripples. In any case, based on observations of other craters, the dark material is almost certainly a fill rather than a deeper layer exposed by the impact.

How do you know? The facts show the exact opposite.

We've seen wheel-tracks erroded away in less than a year. We've seen dust move overnight. 'Fresh' geologically is still tens, hundreds of thousands of years. PLENTY of time for vast swathes of dust to blow in and out of the crater.

There are... faint and subtle, but they're there...

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The "outcrop layer" is the top of a 600 meter thick stack of layers.

"We have completed a regional analysis of the hematite deposit in Terra Meridiani and
conclude that the unit is in the midst of a 600-m-thick stack of friable layered materials
superposed on Middle and Late Noachian cratered terrain."
http://lasp.colorado.edu/~hynek/papers/hynek-etal-jgr02.pdf


Also, the top "outcrop layer" would not be sitting on top of loose sand, it would be sitting on top of fossilized dunes, which have in fact been seen in the deeper craters visited. (Those fossilized dunes are part of the 600 meter thick stack.)

Eutectic - good first post! Keep at it.

There are some very interesting laminations in an ejecta fragment (see arrows) in this navcam from sol 2594. I really hope it is imaged by the pancams before Oppy leaves this area. I have applied 50% unsharp mask to the image.
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On the yellow forum 'Ben' suggested that these are soft sediment deformation. Looks like a good call and fits the lensing and possible veritical release artifacts apparent in some ejecta at Santa Maria. Using the current catch phrase this is definitely a 'shiny' thing and worthy of a close up look.

There is a strong resemblance to convolute laminations often seen in soft sediment deformation, but it also resembles other sedimentary structures. Higher res images would really help.

What are "vertical release artifacts?"