Bye bye, Tisdale. It's time to move on.
Next target? Philosilicates.
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Edited on Sep 16 2011.
This thread is dedicated to the exploration of Cape York, starting on sol 2703 when Opportunity left the "rocky garden" and started moving towards Chester Lake.
Full Version: Cape York - The "Lakelands"
As soon as we move to the east edge of CY, I think the view to Endeavour's far side and the north rim will improve significantly.
Sol 2703-2704 Navcam panorama (updated)
I just finished reading this month's MER Report (by Salley Rayl @ TPS); a great reading with a lot of goodies, as usual. I'm copying here a reference about our next waypoint:
A really rough surface, isn't it? Easy to understand why they didn't use the RAT on it.
QUOTE
Opportunity’s next immediate destination is an outcrop on the southern brow of Cape York, located, as Nelson described it, "roughly 30 meters (98.42 feet) north of Spirit Point or the area of the southern tip of Cape York, and roughly 45 to 50 meters (131.23 to 164.04 feet) east of Tisdale 2."
QUOTE (walfy @ Sep 3 2011, 09:02 AM) 
Another type of gif animation of Tisdale 2:
A really rough surface, isn't it? Easy to understand why they didn't use the RAT on it.
QUOTE (Tesheiner @ Sep 3 2011, 10:05 AM)
I just finished reading this month's MER Report
Some good quotes about the future in that update:
QUOTE
"Cape Tribulation has an extensive exposure mineralogically of smectite, which typically forms in presence of water sitting on basalt. But it's a couple kilometers to south and the rover would have to climb an 80-meter hill, and then drive down a 25 degree slope to get to it," Arvidson explained.
QUOTE
"The plan beyond is to really look at those hills to the south – that's real mountain climbing," said Hartman. "Cape York is much more manageable, more weathered, more eroded, and there are some indications phyllosilicates are here, so we're going to sniff around here and see if we can find them, but the longer-term plan is to attack Cape Tribulation. That's going to be a whole other kettle of fish for us.”
From Squyres:
QUOTE
“Having said that, Cape Tribulation is the obvious next place to go for after we've really done our job at Cape York. So we're going to do the best that we can here. Then we're going to see what kind of a rover we've got and we're going to do the best we can with it. Are we going to Cape Tribulation or not? Don't know. I hope so. It looks pretty cool."
Some goodies from today...
Click to view attachment
Drive direction?
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Rather yummy-looking outcrop/ridge?
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A(nother) beaten up breccia of a mongrel of a rock...
Click to view attachment
Drive direction?
Click to view attachment
Rather yummy-looking outcrop/ridge?
Click to view attachment
A(nother) beaten up breccia of a mongrel of a rock...
QUOTE (Stu @ Sep 4 2011, 03:21 PM)
Some goodies from today...
In order, labels are: "HBC" (whatever that means; maybe "B" is for Bedrock?), "Kirkland Lake", and "Marion".
In the second one I assume "Kirkland Lake" is the largest feature. We've seen it from the side. The triangularish rock on the left in that one must be "Trailbreaker", then, I guess. (As Tesheiner figured. Of course, keep in mind this is still partly guesswork.)
To any Canadian, HBC can only mean Hudson's Bay Company... though maybe to a MER driver it means something different... did Oppy lose a hubcap?
Phil
Phil
So what might these 3 plus billion year old clay deposits actually look like to Opportunity's cameras? Are they likely to be dramatically obvious or very subtle perhaps indistinguishable from their surroundings?
QUOTE (mhoward @ Sep 5 2011, 04:24 PM)
Definitely yes!
Looking at Tisdale 1 from this perspective I think it's almost clear it has the same "bright top" as Tisdale 2. There were some pancams of it planned to be taken thisol (2707) and I believe those shots should confirm it.
Would like to know the meaning of "HBC" too; I presume it is related to the bright patch of bedrock to the right of those three rocks. Actually, the rover moved to that area some hours ago. Map update in a minute.
Here is the HBC mosaic:
Nice!
QUOTE (Sunspot @ Sep 4 2011, 11:10 PM)
So what might these 3 plus billion year old clay deposits actually look like to Opportunity's cameras? Are they likely to be dramatically obvious ...?
I'm thinking that without the mini-tes, it might be difficult to distinguish them. Now the loss of the MTES starts to hurt.
I love the crazy lustre of the bedrock in the latest pancams - Chester Lake perhaps?
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...7M1.JPG?sol2709
How much information does the lustre give the geologically minded here about the rock? Can't wait to see this in colour...
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...7M1.JPG?sol2709
How much information does the lustre give the geologically minded here about the rock? Can't wait to see this in colour...
I think it's going to awhile before the geologists get tired of this place
I continue to be stunned and amazed, not only at the imagery coming from Oppy, but the gorgeous processing y'alls are doing. Thank you so many times!
"Chester Lake" looks very interesting. Ridges of harder, darker rock jutting up out of lighter rock... cracks... pits... it's got it all...
Click to view attachment
(sharpened and colour-enhanced to bring out subtle features on the rock)
Full size version: http://roadtoendeavour.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/v2.jpg
Click to view attachment
(sharpened and colour-enhanced to bring out subtle features on the rock)
Full size version: http://roadtoendeavour.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/v2.jpg
Some of the shiny bits do look like knobbly inclusions of a harder material, but others look like flat quadrilaterals bounded by
the surface crack patterns, as if they could be places where thin flakes of weathered surface material have recently broken away. I wonder if any of the loose flakes lying around the vicinity can be matched up shape-wise to individual shiny patches on the rock?
the surface crack patterns, as if they could be places where thin flakes of weathered surface material have recently broken away. I wonder if any of the loose flakes lying around the vicinity can be matched up shape-wise to individual shiny patches on the rock?
Chester Lake in 'false but trying' and 'stretched to within an inch' colours.
Fascinating...
Fascinating...
Just for fun
QUOTE (mhoward @ Sep 9 2011, 04:40 PM)
Sol 2710 Navcam panorama
That's so much better than my paper version, thanks!
And while I'm at it huge thanks to everyone for all the wonderful rockscapes and Endeavour vistas on this thread.
Marvellous, guys! Starts to recall me Spirit Odyssey on Husband hill!
Some comments on Chester Lake (and a false colour (?!) pancam view) here. "Paraphrased" from Squyres:
QUOTE
The new target should be IDD'd... it looks bright and Noachian itself... Need to build a nice story here and relate it to the Tisdales... We think there might be a coating, so we'll have to choose a target carefully and at least APXS it... Consider RAT'ing it to get into its guts...
It is something entirely new, or SOS ("Same Old Sulfates")? This is our first major Noachian target, so let's make it count.
I wonder what about it "looks Noachian"...
It is something entirely new, or SOS ("Same Old Sulfates")? This is our first major Noachian target, so let's make it count.
QUOTE (fredk @ Sep 10 2011, 07:09 AM)
Some comments on Chester Lake (and a false colour (?!) pancam view) here. "Paraphrased" from Squyres:I wonder what about it "looks Noachian"...
Had me fooled, too. I asked myself that all day.
The EOSs and SOWG meetings are particularly cryptic these days; these guys talk and head and shoulders above my comprehension!
-m
Maybe it is the orbital images of that locality that look Noachian rather than that specific rock.
The new target is Salisbury... my home town! - I mean the one in Wiltshire, not one of the Salisburys in the colonies.
Phil
Phil
Another magnifcent view...
Click to view attachment
Full size version here: http://twitpic.com/6iynsp/full
Click to view attachment
Full size version here: http://twitpic.com/6iynsp/full
QUOTE (fredk @ Sep 10 2011, 04:09 PM)
I wonder what about it "looks Noachian"...
It looks like an impact breccia, integral to the weathered rim of a crater that pre-dated the Meridiani sediment formation. Could it be anything other than a Noachian construct?
True that, Serpens. The geomorph of this area is more complex and convoluted than we we assume or possibly can imagine. It's like standing on a small chunk of the Canadian Shield and figuring out depositional environments with a handlens and a Brunton.
Ah, the comparative simplicity of seven years on the playa may have spoilt us...
--Bill (almost giddy with anticipation over impending MI's and APXS)
Ah, the comparative simplicity of seven years on the playa may have spoilt us...
--Bill (almost giddy with anticipation over impending MI's and APXS)
Could some of you tell a non-geologist what kinds of questions the new detail we're encountering might answer. What more will we learn about the history of Mars -- besides the overly mentioned issue of water.
Steve M
Steve M
We don't know all the details, but it seems the sulfate and blueberry rocks of the plains we've just left were formed in a relatively brief period in the middle of Martian history. Water was there, and probably very salty and foul-tasting water! - not very pleasant for life. These rocks at Cape York are much older, and may have formed in very different conditions. What we hope to learn is, what were those conditions? Warm or cold? Reducing or oxidizing conditions? Acidic or alkaline? Lots of water or only a bit? Water in the ground, or melting out of overlying snow? So we would expect evidence of water, but it's the environmental conditions that are most important.
Phil
Phil
That is it, exactly. When a rock like basalt weathers, in the presence of water, it breaks down into clay minerals (the phyllosilicates in the news) and various anions and cations ("minerals" dissolved in the water). The type of clays, and other weathering byproducts, is dependent on the ionic makeup of the water to begin with, as well as the temperature and whether the environment was oxidizing or reducing. By looking at the weathered zone on the hill, we can tell what the conditions were way back then.
--Bill
--Bill
Thanks Bill and Phil, that's a really clear, really useful explanation of the significance of this place. Much appreciated.
There is the complication of deciding whether any clays that may be found were formed by weathering of the basalts before the impact or after brecciation and deposition on the crater rim. It's not an easy puzzle.
Thanks Phil and Bill for that explanation and SteveM for the question.
Now I, as a non-geologist, understand what is going on on Mars
besides driving and taking pictures and measurements.
That is the purpose of this website, or not ?.
jan van Driel
Now I, as a non-geologist, understand what is going on on Mars
besides driving and taking pictures and measurements.
That is the purpose of this website, or not ?.
jan van Driel
QUOTE (Stu @ Sep 12 2011, 01:30 PM)
That pancam caught a dark embedded pebble in the lower left.
QUOTE (Fran Ontanaya @ Sep 12 2011, 10:49 AM)
That pancam caught a dark embedded pebble in the lower left.
Can anyone place the background of this image. Where is it relative to Chester Lake? Is it in one of the pancam or navcam panoramas?
It's above it. The latest navcam mosaic (from sol 2710) misses the peeble by just a few cm or so but the one taken at the previous site, before the final approach to Chester Lake, catches it. I highlighted the peeble and the whole area on this partly mosaic from sol 2707.
Click to view attachment
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