Aye, ya beat to it with the split-screen mugshot of the victim, Tom. Good composite.

I'm not surprised that the vein mineral is so tough-- deposited in a fracture by fluids and probably a carbonate mineral or even silica. And the surrounding rock is understandably weaker-- it is likely old-weathered pre-Endeavour surface that has been further altered, parboiled and marinaded by those hydrothermal fluids. And the colors of the disturbed soil tell a story of their own-- in and of themselves, we don't know what minerals they represent, but their meaning is clear: there are current weathering processes going on at and below the surface.

There. Let me stick my neck out and risk public humiliation is a few days...

Let me attach an L257 of the Pancam from Tosol (Sol-2773). I've had a really iffy dialup connection the past few days and haven't updated my photo site, so y'all are getting a preview.

@Matt: "Purportedly, we intended to drive over it 3 times" And she did so with a vengeance. Poor rock never stood a chance.

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...75P1833L0M1.JPG

--Bill

Hehe, talk about a drive-by assault. Honestly, I was surprised to see Oppy intentionally drive over this rock. I mean, how many times have we previously wished the rover to physically attack a nearby target, only to see her shy away?

True, Tom.

I hereby christen this the Moh's Maneuver!

Pretty smart tactic, great use of available capabilities to experiment. I suppose that we should be used to such innovation from the MER team by now...

Full Navcam panorama for sols 2773-2774, 360x90 degrees facing east:

right ; anaglyph

Here is my version of the small 'contact' mosaic taken on sol 2772



James

Here's mhoward's nice pan in circular format. I like the little fresh crater just ahead.

Phil

Click to view attachment

A little travelling music, please, maestro...

I'm eyeballing a good 7-10 degree northwarrd slope here. And I do hope for a brief science stop at the outcrop ahead. Remember, with the upturned beds of the crater rim, after we crest that ridge we'll be headed downward in the stratigraphic section (and older in time).

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...JNP1945L0M1.JPG (Sol-2775 Navcam in the drive direction)

--Bill

If we ever have to go there, we'll may be have a "Everest"-like panorama

Anaglyph of the ridge (sol 2775):
Click to view attachment

Oooh.... take today's navcams, stitch n stretch 'em and the northern end of Cape York starts to become much more obvious...

Click to view attachment

Stu that image earns you an A+ in my grade book. It's the first time I've seen any view from the ground that recreates our previously exaggerated vision of Cape York.

See? I told you all CY would look like that... eventually..!

Glad you liked it Dan, that's a pretty striking image. The "Cleft" is still hidden behind the ridge. Wonder when it'll appear around the bend..?

Click to view attachment

And the Exploration team needs to start clucking for more Foreground Quarter shots-- that soil in the FHaz- and NavCams is intriguing. I'm looking forward to seeing that scarp where the slope breaks at the ridgetop. Something is happening there-- you've got a lot of active weathering and erosion going on at that spot.

--Bill

Here's my crude stitch of today's images.
Click to view attachment

Pretty close from what I heard -- about 8 degrees at Oppy's current position. Those little mounds are in excess of 10-15 degrees. We'll see once our imaging folks put together the stereo maps...

And those outcrops are indeed being eyed by the science team. Hopefully one sits on reasonable northerly tilt -- can you say "MB for 3 months"?!


Scary-lookin'...

-m

"MB for 3 months". Yes. That felt good.

And I might suppose that even with dusty panels and musty air there might be enough power to rove from lillypad to lillypad. And who knows what fair winds and clear skies will bring.

And post-Solstice I'm looking with interest at that windswept area to the NE of these peaks. I don't see much structure or lineations there, but there are subtle color variations which suggest changes in lithology. FWIW.


--Bill

Pancam image of the northern tip of Cape York.

Click to view attachment

This description excites me, further proof that Opportunity's longevity has changed me in ways I could never have imagined. Thanks Bill!

Nice Pancam L2 view on Sol 2773.

Jan van Driel

Click to view attachment

Hey everybody !

I was a little bit busy these last weeks. But I found time to make some panoramics.

Sol 2747 :



Sol 2773 :




Sol 2775 :

Nice!

Here's a shot of the tracks showing the activities around Homestake. The vein is at bottom center.

Phil

Click to view attachment

Here's a navcam mosaic shot thisol (2777).
Click to view attachment

And check also the pancams (here); the view is great!

While working on the route map, trying to match the navcam mosaic to the background, I think I identified the still partially hidden "Cleft" on the images.
Click to view attachment

Original: http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...NSP1968L0M1.JPG

I agree-- I've been working on an image similar to yours but haven't had a chance to upload.

Additionally, I think I can see the small "Mini-Dagger" at the very north tip of Cape York (extreme left edge of your Pancam image, off the left edge of your HiRISE image). I'll try to upload that image later this evening, but if someone gets it before me, go ahead.

Maybe we should wax poetic and name the Cleft "River Jordan" since this is like the Promised Land. No, that means that Oppy might do a Moses and croak before reaching it. We need to think positive...

Let's see what the new images have in store today...

--Bill

The 4 last pans sending by Oppy.

Sol 2776. I just love this view. The feeling of being on a beach. But yet with no ocean…


Same sol, pancam. The low atmosphere opacity provide a very good view of the distant hills of Endeavour.



Anaglyph version.


Sol 2777 (check my trips). We can see the North corner of CY, no ?

Looking forward to the huge winter pan they'll take when they get to a good parking spot.

The imagery coming down tomorrow morning (PST) should be interesting, if the drive goes as planned...

>_>



-m

Here is the location image for the "mini-dagger" that I mentioned in post#474 . Doesn't quite have the zing that I visualized it would, but here goes anyway...

> imagery coming down tomorrow morning (PST) should be interesting...

Yes indeed.

02778 p2430 pancam_Turkey_Haven_2x1_L257R2
02778 p2431 pancam_North_Haven_2x1_L257R2




--Bill

This northern exposure has possibilities.

Well, with the drive direction pancams looking eastish, a drive up to the ridge and a peek over to the eastern side of CY would be really nice...

... and it seems that there are some layerings visible inside the "walls" of the Dagger. An interesting feature indeed !

...and look at the low-gain antenna mast : so dusty now. With even some clods of dust/dirt sticking on it !

Indeed, VM. I've been following the "antenna dust" phenomenon for several years.

Here are images from Sol-2678 (June 2011) and Sol-2777 (November 2011) showing how much the dust has increased in just 100 Sols.

This makes sense. Cape York is actively weathering and eroding and the light winds available in this season are enough to suspend fine dust particles so that they can adhere to the antenna. As the season moves on, we will hopefully get gustier transient winds, which will lead to a cleaning event.

--Bill

The navcam images shot after today's (2778) drive are available here (http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...cam/2011-11-17/) and it looks like we are almost at the summit (if we can call it this way). The view should be great BUT unfortunately all ìmages were intentionally taken pointing down so the horizon is out of the FoV.

Edit: Added a quick navcam mosaic pointing south to what I presume is "Turkey Haven".
Click to view attachment

The horizon is simply not important right now. The important areas are at our feet.

We do have a nice L257 of "Turkey Haven", though. I'm going to miss my informal name for it-- "Gracie Peak, a major structural feature of the Allen Formation".

--Bill

How can anybody say that?

Geologists... - I don't know. (huff, puff)
I give up.

PS I think we'll get plenty of horizon in due course, maybe an opportunity for a long baseline pancam 3D of Cook and friends??

The horizon is important IMO . But yet, sometimes you have to made concessions when imaging an outcrop like this.



And a little color ?

Right. So. We're currently sitting on a locally north-titled dip right before this little mound in front of us. Tilt is between 5 and 10 degrees, I don't know exactly. We're going to recon this hill to our south and then the same ridge, about 15 meters away, a little more to the East. The hill to our south is Turkey Haven -- where we might stay for the long Thanksgiving weekend -- with a north tilt of about 15 degrees; the one that's more to the east on the same ridge is one of the highest northerly tilted areas on all of Cape York. I don't know if there's a target associated with that one yet.

We've got a bit more mapping to do of other parts, but these spots look very promising to come back to once we're done mapping and roving around for some science.

-m

And here is the half-frame L257 of Turkey Haven on Sol-2778 (P2430).

The first thought that most geologists would have seeing colors like these is "Whoa, this is deeply weathered".

--Bill


EDIT-- added a L257 of North Haven on Sol-2778 (P2431) that came in later.

(Hey Bill, that blue sky makes it look like Arizona! Nice!)

As we anticipate the 'reveal' of the unique dagger formation (just over the hill) I noticed a rock at the edge of the skirt of CY at the mouth of the dagger. I can't remember seeing exposed large rocks at the skirt's edge -- that weren't related to a nearby crater (and if my poor memory is faulty- I am sure some one will 'remind' me ) Anyway, could the rock have had some hand in making the (shallow) trench and aeolian erosion did the rest??

Click to view attachment

Hmm. If the wind is being funneled through the dagger formation, then that might be a place to get a solar panel cleaning? Of course, conditions may have changed since then.

Does that mean we can expect a location called "Santa's Workshop" a month from now?

Here, for comparison, is a different view of the same HiRISE image. This has been processed to emphasize small, low contrast features so it looks rather chunky compared to PDP's image.

The Dagger is emigmatic, to be sure. It looks like it is a water-related erosinal feature, but given it's locale has to be an aeolian feature. And notice the way it fans out to the NE-- almost like a slope failure/landslide. It has to be fairly recent-- look at the sharp rock ledges along it's margins. And notice the similar, but less evolved, feature on the left side of these images.

My speculation is that the Dagger is an area of weak, less-resistant bedrock (in a fracture zone, for example) and the rocks are more prone to wind erosion. Or instead of fractures, the rock is lithologically different because this is an old paleo land surface that is early- or pre-Endeavor and is a different rock type.

Whatever it is, it will make for good science.

--Bill

Those colors certainly caught my attention and had me thinking, "Whoa!" But, I am not sure it is deeply weathered. The iron oxidation that is surely causing those color contrasts seems not to be related to weathering surfaces, but rather to some other structures internal to this outcrop. I'd go so far as to say the outcrop is deeply altered. I'll admit, though, that weathering often follows planes of weakness, and that this first view of the outcrop could be tricky to interpret. I can't wait to see some higher resolution images of these rocks. How about that vein or dike in the drive direction pancams to the left of turkey haven? I'm looking forward to seeing that in higher res.

Thanks for the info and for your yesterday's blog entry too, Matt.

Note to everyone: check that blog; it has a lot of "goodies".

Agreed. Putting the original thought in context, a terrestrial geologist in eastern Alabama/western Georgia (the igneous/metamorphic province) would saunter up to an outcrop and say this-- the granite/schist would be soft, crumbly and saprolytic and you would have to dig a bit to get a "fresh" sample. But in our Martian context, yes, "deeply altered" is more appropriate. I fully expect to find examples of the pre-Endeavour impact land surface on this traverse.

Quality. I like the title of the blog, it reflects the OliverTwistian feeling I have looking at all this over the Internet. It's a good read.


EDIT: I like the comment "The engineering team accepted the risk after several long, fruitful, and constructive conversations.* " and the ensuing footnote. BT,DT.



One question-- Matt's blog entry seems to imply that the Homestake vein is more tubular in nature. My mental image of that class of structure on CY is that it is more tabular in nature, like a filled fracture. I am more of a soft-rock type than hard-rock so I'll beg clarification (from anyone).

--Bill

Do you base this on his comment, "...exposed rocks resembling blood veins in shape...."?
Perhaps he was referring to a similarity in two dimensions, not three.

Based on that description the implication is tubular, and I've heard other comments that suggest that. My experience is more "tabular".

Just tryin' to get edified...

--Bill



EDIT-- uploadeded a HiRISE image (ESP_024015_1775) of the "winterhaven" area of Cape York. This image has been enhanced to bring out small details and fine contrasts so it's not as smooth-looking as some versions.

Matt also describes Homestake as being "..about 1cm in diameter.."
(did the whole of the section that was driven-over become visible?)

Well...


Ah, poo! I knew my using "diameter" would bite me. Literally a minute before I popped over here, I was publishing comments and re-reading the entry when I noticed that. (I often delegate proof-reading until after publishing. My habits are impeccably silly.)

So, no, I don't mean to imply that it's tubular. It's definitely more of a filled fracture. Less round-y, more corner-y.

-m