Left Navcam Sol 995



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and the complete Navcam L view on Sol 995.

Jan van Driel

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some stereo views at this juncture SOL995
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This is a circular version of Jan's latest panorama. We'll probably be here for a while.

Phil

Sol 995 R-MastCam 3x3 mosaic, some nice exposed/extended mineral filled fractures in the exposed bedrock

EDIT :
added the sol 005 drive direction L-MastCam, but like Phil's stated earlier, we won't be leaving here any time soon

Clicking the above images will open the applicable Flickr 'All Sizes' page.
both images enhanced

USGS Mission Update - Sol 997: Preparing for contact science, from Lauren Edgar

Thanks to the circular view you made with my sol 992 NavCam panorama, I noticed I forgot to add NavCam pictures of Mt Sharp and also some discontinuities in the stitching. I corrected that and improved the contrast of Gale crater wall in the horizon.

Nice overview.

The Navcam L view on Sol 997.

Jan van Driel

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The "Sting" of Marias Pass

USGS Mission Update - Sol 998: Contact Science at Marias Pass, from Lauren Edgar

Sol 997 : R-MastCam 3x3 of Ronan. Our first close look at part of the Stimson unit

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Ronan, through the lens of the MAHLI on sol 998. Seeing some large grains

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Looks like the upper overhanging ledge is a bed of conglomerate rock. Those "large grains" look like stream-rounded pebbles, and they are eroding out of the conglomerate matrix onto the thin ledge and onto the ground below. (We've seen several other examples of conglomerate rock here at Gale; specifically, while heading to Yellowknife Bay from Bradbury Landing.)

I'd say this suggests that the unit in question was deposited fluvially. It doesn't prove it, but it is suggestive.

-the other Doug

Hi Doug - the coarse grains are millimeter size, so it's really more like a sandstone in grain size terms. They do look rounded, but at such a small size that could include aeolian transport. Still, I think you are probably right.

Phil

There could be lenses of conglomerate nearby.

Scaling this Sol 998 MAHLI image of a brushed target by the motor count of 13984, I'm concluding clasts of larger than 1 mm diameter:
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I'd see this as a strong hint towards a moderately energetic aquaeous environment, threshold velocity about 30 cm/s, considering lower gravity on Mars.
Other hints:
- Grain size distribution doesn't look as strictly bimodal as for aeolian deposits.
- The larger grains show variable roundness, presumed tektites in aeolian deposits use to be mostly well-rounded, almost spherical, diameter 0.6 mm (IIRC).
So if it's aeolian, it's rather different from "recent" aeolian deposits, like e.g. Rocknest.

The rock looks clearly reddish, an indication for relevant hematite abundance, i.e. strong oxidation (Fe³⁺) of at least the matrix.

USGS Mission Update - Sol 999: "Last MAHLI images before conjunction" by Ken Herkenhoff

The pahrump unit is traversed by gypsum veins filling fracture lines in the rock. The rock unit above it is distinctively layered and somewhat made up of coarser grains. It lacks such veins which are present in the pahrump unit.

USGS Mission update - Sol 1000-1002: Photometry, by Ken Herkenhoff

Simple right mast camera animation of the 'DRT check-out' during sol 999
LINK : Flickr Animation 787 x 816 pixels
Alternate link : Imgur Animation 787 x 816 pixels

Clocked up a thousand sols... Here is to the next thousand

To some these engineering images from the rovers hazard avoidance cameras (HazCam's) may not appear very interesting, but they record a milestone of a thousand martian days that the rover has been on the 4th rock from our sun. Since landing the rover has returned more than 245 thousand images. In addition to those images, the rover's instruments have returned scientific data that will keep scientists busy for decades to come. Look closely at these HazCam images and you will see rover tracks acquired by just one of the rovers 4 rear pointing HazCam's, these are looking north over the crater floor and beyond to the distant walls of Gale crater. The other image records the view to the South and the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) carefully acquiring elemental mineralogical data from an outcrop at the upper limit of the Pahrump unit, above which lies layers of mainly unexplored history recorded in the Stimson unit... I hope I can be here to enjoy the next 1000 sols with you all

Mahli anaglyph from images of 'Big Arm' Sol999,

Two images were stretched to form a sort of synthetic left/right eye perspective and it seems to have given at least some depth of field, other adjustments made to try and highlight the different materials, and make up of this rock.



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It's a conglomerate!

You seem pleased!

A wider view




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Rock comes in all shapes. sizes, and chemical makeup.


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Exactly what I said. I'm pretty sure we're right, Julius.

-the other Doug

Of course it's a conglomerate rock!


https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=conglomer...HHOuy7Qb4sYPIDA

Pleased because that means a longer water story for Mars.

Actually given the small clast size I would have thought a poorly sorted sandstone with well rounded grains. I actually wonder of this could be reworked sedimentary material - a debris flow from the erosion of the sedimentary, lower levels of Mount Sharp.

'Julius' I wish I knew enough to be pleased when I saw something which would indicate that.

NavCam anaglypgh from Sol 1001, really shows the difference between the different rock types.

Be sure to zoom in nice and close in the midground to catch all the alien artefacts left strewn on the ground!




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Lovely anaglyph algorithm

USGA Mission Update - Sols 1003-1004: Last tactical planning before solar conjunction, by Ken Herkenhoff
Extract...

That conglomerate bed is pretty interesting. Judging by how poorly sorted the grains are in it I can't really see the Washboard formation being anything but fluvially deposited. I'm interested in how the MSL team will reconcile that with the more soil-like composition of the unit.

I've also updated my annotated image of Grey Wolf Peak based on closer looks at the contact in the Mt. Shields region. I hope we'll get an image of the backside of Grey Wolf Peak at some point in the future, the topography back there looks interesting. At a glance it looks to me like a bit of minor faulting has taken place, and that might explain the slight folding of the Washboard unit that I highlighted in the panoramic image. I doubt backtracking that far will be in the game plan after conjunction, though, that's quite a way to backtrack.

Well rounded small grains implies transportation over a reasonable distance and time span, almost certainly in a reasonably high energy, fluvial environment. However the poorly sorted grains imply an intermittent energy source that resulted in dumping of sediment rather than diminishing fluvial energy which would tend to graded bedding. While impact surge can result in some rounding of larger rocks combined with poor sorting, angular clasts would also be expected, so impact can pretty much be ruled out. The simplest explanation would seem to be reworking of a previous fluvial/lacustrine deposit, with grains jumbled in a mass wasting event.

Those were my potato chips left-over after a snack - LOL :-) Nice anaglypgh though.

Some of the nodules look semi-translucent which is funny - Opportunity has sent back several microscope images showing what looks to be nearly transparent little nodes in some VERY interesting rocks. Other images show "fuzz" and long stringy dust particles when they look closer at the crunchy stuff they stumbled across. Very interesting!

On this stuff, Im siding on the Fluvial theory.

145 images, Debayered and stitched and resized.

The Mastcam R view on Sol 993.

Jan van Driel

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I assumed that with solar conjunction starting today that we were stuck with what was down already by late last night, but I guess that Curiosity got a few more images down before disappearing behind the Sun! EDIT: Full panorama is now stitched together.


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Debayered in gmic, assembled and stitched in Photoshop. I adjusted the color channels a bit, reducing the brightness of green by 5, and increasing the brightness of red by 5 and blue by 2. This seems to match the color of official releases pretty closely, at least on my home monitor (which should be properly calibrated), but doesn't seem to be reproducing well on other monitors. Once the green was darkened a bit, I used the "replace color" tool in Photoshop. I selected a couple of different green patches with a fuzziness of 35, then replaced it with a similar color with the red color values boosted by 20. This was entirely subjective, but it looked like it matched the surrounding rock hues pretty well.


Also a bit more evidence that the Washboard was fluvially deposited. Load casts!

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These look like they're resting directly on Murray formation, so they could be remnants of the very basal layer of the Washboard. I think they'd have to be resting on mud for that to happen, since dry clay would be too hard to deform plastically like that.

Also here's a comparison shot between some fluvially-deposited sandstone here in Illinois and one of the sandstone beds in the Washboard. Admittedly, my knowledge of eolian cross-bedding isn't very good, I've only seen it in person a couple of times, but it seems to me like the scale of the cross-bedding is a lot bigger. What we're seeing on Mars seems more in line with a fluvial setting.


Full size here

Perhaps the Washboard is a subaerially-exposed alluvial fan?

For my own information, on what well-documented example or model of a highly distal or far-travelled impact surge deposit ponded at the bottom of a deep crater on Mars is this assertion regarding the necessity for angular grains based? Note: Turbulent density current flow is also a type of mass wasting event that involves reworking of older deposits.
Don Burt

Your "load casts" don't look much like terrestrial load casts I've seen (more like some sort of shrinkage structure) and your cross-bedded fluvial sandstone in Illinois is well ordered, with an easily visible, consistent flow direction, whereas the Mars example is more chaotic, with shallower cross beds. It resembles cross-bedding seen by the two previous rovers all over Meridiani (where it was eventually called aeolian) and at Home Plate in Gusev (where it was eventually called volcanic). No actual load casts (caused by compressional dewatering of wet sediments) appear to have been imaged anywhere on Mars. Does anyone know of examples? Thanks.

Don Burt

As you well know there has been no investigation of surge deposits on Mars to date...with or without crater ponding, so I accept that your requirement was probably mischievous and tongue in cheek - good one. There are some well documented investigations of far travelled impact surge/ejecta on Earth. For example E-Wallace et al. Sedimentology of the Neoproterozoic Acraman impact-ejecta horizon, South Australia. AGSO Journal of Australian Geology & Geophysics, 16 (4), 443-45I. In addition of course are your own papers on impacts and volcanic surge and potential misidentification as aeolian/fluvial deposits. I would in fact draw your attention to your 1982, "Spor Mountain paper" where you quote "'Why, those are surge deposits!' His criteria were the coarse angular clasts, the lack of sorting, the laminar bedding and cross bedding, bomb sags...". From my reading the general outcome of impact surge seems to be near field angular clasts poorly sorted and distal area, graded bedding. The poorly sorted but well rounded sandstone deposit does significantly reduce the probability of a fluvial/lacustrine deposit but there are a number of possibilities in play and the composition of the deposit will be interesting. But I will stick with a reworked fluvial/lacustrine deposit with surge possible but improbable.

Some images from Sol 1003 were received yesterday !
Here are some of them mosaicked into a nice perspective... Enjoy
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...and a more detailed view, even more enjoyable
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Remote Micro Imager Mosaic featuring "Piegan" and "Wallace". The first issued images that were acquired after conjunction (Sol 1027. Jun 27. 2015) roughly stitched.

Flickr Image

Fabulous view... and now we really have the impression of looking up Mount Sharp from the base, rather than the more distant profile views of the hillside we
had after landing.

MAHLI mosaic of the soil and ground in front of the rover (sol 1028)

Here is my take on the MC100 mosaic of sol 1003. What a nice view!

Shared this view (with attribution of course) with a group of pre-schoolers in North Carolina this morning at a talk I gave at my local library. We talked a bit about the layering in the rocks and what we can guess about the atmosphere from this image.

Nice work!

Thanks I really appreciate when my work is used for teaching and outreach purpose. Your young students imagined being on Mars for a morning

..and the requisite anaglyph of that beautiful sol1003 foothills view, which from this far still looks like an old spaghetti western painted background, will have to dig up a wide-baseline for that once we reach a hopefully unobstructed view. Also, some frames of the sol1028 MAHLI mosaic happen to be conducive to stereo.
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