The cuttings have a similar hue to the abraded test site so we could assume consistent lithology under the "varnished" zone of the section.
And I note a series of dark spots down in the cutting-filled abrasion spot so the Laser Zapper has been busy. We'll have an idea of the chemistry of Rochette.

--Bill

An extremely tenuous comparison perhaps but with Curiosity's drill fines similar colouring seemed to be associated with high proportions of clay minerals, calcium sulphate and iron oxide.

The sample is in the tube, as it has been confirmed by NASA: https://twitter.com/NASAPersevere/status/1434376252819841026
Some images of the drill with better lightning conditions and different zoom levels have arrived.

And they cleverly zapped the cuttings that filled in the abrasion site so they wouldn't be zapping the varnish/crust beneath, mixing the compositions.

Brilliant move.

Sol 194 SuperCam Remote Micro Imager with Mastcam-Z context and Mastcam-Z right eye multispectral principal components,
showing a possible target in Séítah?

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Nicely laminated and clastic-appearing.
Given the problem retaining that first core sample, they might be cautious about coring this. But it would make a spectacular sample!

--Bill

Sol 196, a second sample collected (one for each planned cache).

Phil

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On SOL 191 the rover took 8 shots of the late afternoon sky
...after adjusting the contrast it shows atmospheric differences
the rover is looking east towards Red Point (?) - the motion of the atmosphere does not appear random but rather east to west drift...
I doubt if human eyes would see 'clouds' as such --
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Sol 197 SuperCam Remote Micro-Imager

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A basic z-stack of two sol 198 Watson frames of the 2nd core sample site at 'Montagnac'
The hole is really clean, so I'm assuming that the GDRT was used to remove the drill cuttings prior to the images being acquired.
We know the core diameters are 13 mm, but the drilled hole diameter is only an estimate as I'm still looking for a reference on the diameter of the 'flight' boring bits.
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A drive on Sol 199. Left Navcam 4-tile mosaic to Site: 7, drive: 346. Roughly assembled in MS-ICE/
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The full Mastcam34 mosaic from Sols 181 & 182. I love the rover tracks, so clear here.

Beautiful panorama, Damia.

Sol 199 - a drive but so far only half a panorama, though it gives a good location for the map. Here's a semicircular view. (EDIT: replaced with a full view which appeared a moment after I posted the half view)

Phil

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200 Sols on Mars, and another drive towards the helicopter (~West) Open full res to see the sun reflecting off the helicopter's blades
R-Navcam 4-tile mosaic very crudely assembled in MS-ICE and de-greened
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And here is a circular panorama from the new location on sol 200.

Phil

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I think all the frames from the Sol 189 selfie have arrived by now in full resolution. Linked to the thumbnail it is the full-sized version on my hosting.

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Drive on sol 201 as seen in this end-of-drive rear-left-Hazcam that's showing the tracks laid down by the rover as it drove down off Artuby Ridge and into South Seitah
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Interesting 'cirrus streamer' in the sky. Does Mars have a Jet Stream?

--Bill

Mars's global wind circulation is subject to some of the same phenomena as Earth's, but is relatively more subject to the influence of local topography and pressure waves coming from the sublimation of polar frosts.

https://www.cps-jp.org/~pschool/2010-01-04/..._references.pdf

Indeed, but that particular feature is an artifact of the optical system, as the symmetry suggests. Look back and you will see many similar examples.

Phil

Sol 201, a circular view of a beautiful landscape.

Phil

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Interesting maneuver. Possibly inspired by Ingenuity's Sol 183 & 193 flights?

--Bill

So they found a way in after all! If not for Ingenuity's scouting imagery, would they have avoided the whole area as initially thought, I wonder?

The selfie taken near Rochette, at about 11:45 am LMST on sol 198, with an extended sky.

SOL 201 -- 2:56 PM
Auto-Adaptive Equalization - new version
The solid colors of the hardware are immune -- shadows brightened -- the background is enhanced.
(except for that high-gain antenna..)
In the lower-left is the sundial, the helicopter antenna (off the side), and an up look camera
GIF
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Sol 200 LMastcam-Z (part 1):
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Sol 200 LMastcam-Z (part 2):
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Another version of the "Rochette" selfie, this time with Perseverance looking at the drilled rock.



An animation between the 2 versions of the selfie.
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Sol 202 Mastcam-Z anaglyph:
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This is the sol 202 location in circular projection with nice zigzag tracks behind.

Phil

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Spectacular scenery on sol 202 (LMastcam-Z):
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Sol 197 SuperCam Remote Micro Imager with Mastcam-Z context and multispectral principal components (left eye filters 1 to 6)

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Sol 199 SuperCam Remote Micro Imager with Mastcam-Z context and multispectral principal components (left eye filters 1 to 6)

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I had to wait for the whole image sequence in order to stitch the Percy's selfie from Sol 189.

It's now done

Nice exit from the Artuby onlap and heading northward.
Ingenuity did scouting on the last flight and evidently decided that there was nothing new.

--Bill

Sol 202 SuperCam Remote Micro Imager with Mastcam-Z context and multispectral principal components (left eye filters 1 to 6)

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Sol 203 end-of-drive R-Navcam (4-tile) mosaic, roughly assembled in MS-ICE
Closing in on one of the RTE targets from flight #12
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Here's a circular view of the sol 203 location.

Phil

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Are the ridges of South Seitah due to more resistant rocks or is there another explanation for it?

Sol 203 LMastcam-Z:
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6 drives on 6 consecutive sols!
Since leaving Rochette the 6 drives (376.3 m) have taken the rover to its sol 204 workplace (L-Navcam)
Time to sample again?
Could do with a target name...
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Here is a circular view of the sol 204 location.

Phil

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Nice detail on sol 204. Mastcam-Z right eye with slightly enhanced colors and anaglyph.

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My view of this site is multiple thin basalt flows separated by light-toned orange-hued weathering surfaces. It would be great to get cores going from one weathered surface to the next. This could give insight about the climate under which the weathering happened.

--Bill

EDIT: should have said 'initial view', since my views evolved rapidly. I'm more interested in those wathering surfaces since they will give insight into the climatic conditions at the time.

Could be, but I will take foot out of mouth later if need be and say that to me this looks like it could be sandstone; say an upper flow dominated deposition. Potentially an intermittent (seasonal?) floodplain before the lake filled and the deltas formed.

Sol 205 short panorama, Mastcam-Z right eye, taken with 34 mm focal distance.
The same view was photographed by Perseverance also with 110 mm focal distance and thus with more than 3 times higher linear resolution.
1 pixel in the short panorama corresponds to about 10 pixels there. An example can be found here.

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Agreed. It could be a "detrital outwash sediment" derived from basalt and not basalt lava flows. Remember, they described earlier sites as "basaltic" in composition. That term in and of itself is a good tipoff that the answer is not clear cut. I'm looking forward to papers from behind the curtain.
One thing for certain: Mars will not dissppoint.

--Bill

First look at the abrasion site in South Seitah
Raw L-NavCam and WATSON Sol 206
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As I mentioned before, I haven't seen anything yet inconsistent with these layered deposits being sedimentary. I have not seen any features consistent with them being extrusive subaerial volcanic flows, or anything that looks like a feature from lava/water reactions. My interpretation right now is that these are subaqueous sediment gravity flow deposits of altered or lightly weathered volcaniclastic sediment, essentially delta front turbidites. Some bed boundaries look like they may preserve current ripples with a finer-grained or mud drape. No indication of internal stratification, yet, which suggests that they are homogenous (let's look for grading, too), or that subsequent alteration has obscured any finer-scale lamination. Sorting looks poor, too, but it's hard to make out clasts versus matrix versus cements even in the abraded areas. Grungy!

Although my 'inner voice' says a basalt, I keep findng ways to stray. The initial Abrasion on Sol 206 (shown above) is clearly sedimentary, poorly sorted, angular and poured in. The start of the abrasion was on that top 'weathering crust. The mineralogy of this section will be interesting.

--Bill