They probably are; gypsum veins have been found by Oppy and Curiosity before. There was water percolation through bedrock in many places. Most of what we see is a lot older than most places on Earth, though; billions instead of millions. Erosion moves exceedingly slowly here.

..... Erosion moves exceedingly slowly here.

Another R-MastCam mosaic from sol 1095

I believe the big ridge at center is Grey Wolf Peak. Cliff on the left side might be the rear flank of Mt. Stimson or Mt. Siyeh.

MastCam mosaic from Sol1095, (not sure of target name)

Interpretations anyone?

MSL did well over the long weekend, except that the Sol 1098 drive was halted after 13 meters of the planned 25 meters because the rover could not confirm that the path ahead was safe. So the plan for the Sol 1099 drive is essentially to complete the rest of the previously planned drive. The only significant problem I've had to grapple with today as SOWG Chair is that the last 5 relays of data through MRO have returned significantly less data than expected; if this problem continues, we will barely receive enough data to plan another drive on Sol 1100. Fortunately, the MRO team understands the problem and knows how to correct it, and there is a good chance that we will receive all the data we need in time for planning tomorrow morning. This situation reminds me of how much we depend on the Mars orbiters and the teams that operate them, and to thank them for their continued support of the MSL mission.
Before the Sol 1099 drive, we have time to acquire ChemCam and Mastcam observations of "Mission Creek" and "Chamberlain," plus MastCam mosaics of "Bridger Basin," "Hackley Point," and "Police Creek." The rover will wake up early on the morning of Sol 1100 to acquire a big stereo mosaic of the far wall of Bridger Basin, because the illumination will be better early in the morning. Mastcam will also take a 360-degree panorama with the left camera.

is that a small crosseye? thats no crosseye, its a parellel! its too big to be a parellel? no, i have a very good feeling about this..! and it gives me a new hope to use parellel more, as crosseye is better only when image matchpoints exceed interpupilary distance, and parellel is so much more relaxed (unless im freaking out trying to view a parellel bigger than the distance between my eyes).

It appears we have a driving "video"

The rover drove 34.5 meters on Sol 1099, as planned, to a good location for the imaging of the northwest wall of Bridger Basin. The Mastcam team verified that the pointing of the mosaic of that wall, planned to occur early on Sol 1100, is excellent. So the Sol 1100 plan includes another drive, to the southwest edge of the small plateau the rover is on. Before the drive, ChemCam and Mastcam will observe nearby layered rocks dubbed "Swan" and "Sunburst," and Right Mastcam mosaics will be taken of targets named "Studhorse," "Sweetgrass Arch" and "Silver Hill." After the drive, in addition to the standard post-driving activities, we're planning a Right Mastcam mosaic of "Beartooth Butte" and a SAM diagnostic activity in preparation for the next solid sample analysis. Fitting all of the desired observations into the plan was challenging, otherwise I've had an easy day as SOWG Chair.
The MRO operations team identified the cause of the communications relay problem we had over the holiday weekend, and sent commands to the spacecraft to correct it. We're happy that we are again receiving lots of good data via MRO!

The 34-meter drive planned for Sol 1100 placed the rover at the edge of the small plateau, as intended, with a good view of a bright Murray Formation outcrop. The center of the Murray outcrop is the target of the drive planned for Sol 1101, which will hopefully put the vehicle in position for contact science over the weekend. Before the drive, ChemCam RMI and Mastcam observations of targets named "Brady" and "Bradley" are planned, both of which are on the far wall of Bridger Basin. Mastcam will also observe a shallow trough in the soil next to the rover ("Blackleaf Creek") and acquire a mosaic of the Murray exposure, which has been named "Saddle."

Curiosity's Sol 1099 MastCam mosaic looking towards Murray Buttes. Handled the debayering process in gmic and cleaned up some of the artifacts introduced by jpeg compression in Photoshop.

Curiosity MastCam - Sol 1099 by Justin Cowart, on Flickr

Curiosity's Sol 1099 MastCam mosaic looking towards Murray Buttes. Handled the debayering process in gmic and cleaned up some of the artifacts introduced by jpeg compression in Photoshop.

press the arrow icon on the bottom right and choose your size. Or press 'all sizes' to see them in the browser.

Strange; I'm on the latest version of Firefox, for the record. I've never seen a login prompt on Flickr. What about right-clicking?

I can download it just fine, and I have no account; just press the arrow icon on the bottom right and choose your size. Or press 'all sizes' to see them in the browser.

Doug

...when possible, we should encourage people to use the internal UMSF image post...

The Sol 1101 activities that we planned yesterday did not complete due to an arm error while it was being stowed. Apparently the shoulder azimuth motor was too cold, so the rover software halted the stow, which precluded the drive that was to follow. The rover is therefore in the same position that it was yesterday.
I'm not scheduled in any operational role today, but I called in to help plan MAHLI imaging of the ChemCam optical window, to monitor dust accumulation. The operations team had to scramble to recover from the arm error and plan science observations, but was able to put together an excellent weekend plan. On Sol 1102, MAHLI will take the standard images of the rover wheels, then acquire a full suite of images of a rock dubbed "Badlands." APXS will then be placed on the rock for an overnight integration. Arm work will continue on Sol 1103, with MAHLI images of the ChemCam window. Then ChemCam and Mastcam will observe targets named "Madison" and "Jefferson." On Sol 1104, the RMI and Mastcam will take images of a bright ridge on the flank of Mt. Sharp, then ChemCam and Mastcam will observe "Lincoln." Mastcam will also acquire another mosaic of the wall of Bridger Basin, then the rover will drive to the bright Murray outcrop "Saddle" as planned yesterday. Fortunately, the Sol 1104 orbiter overflight geometry is better than it was yesterday, so we expect to receive all the data needed for planning on Monday. Finally, early on Sol 1105, Mastcam and Navcam will observe the sun and sky soon after the Mars Odyssey orbiter flies over, so that orbiter observations can be compared with nearly simultaneous observations from the surface. Overall, not a bad plan, considering that the operations team had to quickly respond to the arm error!

Thanks for the heads up. Here's an Imgur link to that MastCam image for now, and I'll try to find another acceptable image host.