Think we can kick off the new phase of exploration at Jezero.

Yes, I was thinking that. The new delta campaign has begun according to the press release.

This is the sol 415 circular panorama showing us between the big drifts or ripples (aeolian bedforms), reminiscent of Opportunity many years ago. I haven't done the sol 414 version because I don't really want to deal with the multi-tile Navcams (4 tiles is bad enough, 16 is way too much for me to tackle with other work piling up). If someone makes a panorama for sol 414 I will use that to make a circular view.

Phil

Click to view attachment

Topic title edited to include sol range- admin

There's a NavCam thumbnail image of the sun from sol 416 with metadata that suggests there was a drive to site 23-1180 from site 23-0824. Looks like the images are late or they'll acquire them the following morning

Click to view attachment

Sol 416 Supercam Remote Micro-Imager with Mastcam-Z and Navcam context
Finely laminated horizontal layering at the base of the hillside - are these the lake sediments we are looking for?

Click to view attachment Click to view attachment Click to view attachment

Very nice images, Tau. I hope we can get to those outcrops.

I changed my mind and made a sol 414 circular pan, using just the upper tier of the multi-tile Navcams to save time. Because of the projection I use the coverage even in just the upper tier is quite extensive.

These circular images don't need a special viewer. They are like a standard polar projection except that the radial scale is changed (roughly equivalent to a stereographic projection). The basic idea is that the middle part is like a map:

Click to view attachment

and the full image includes the horizon features all displayed at the correct azimuth. North is always at the top (or very near it):

Click to view attachment

Phil

End of sol 416 afternoon on Kodiak hill, taken with Navcam Left.

Sol 416, lots of rocks here but the biggest drifts are behind us.

Phil

Click to view attachment

Remember that huge Mastcam-Z panorama from Sol 406? and at the left in the far distance there was an erosional surface preserved in the strata, but the image quality was quite poor? Well we now have our first high resolution view of that outcrop, taken on Sol 415. It shows the same tripartite system we've seen on Kodiak and elsewhere: inclined strata sandwiched between two horizontally bedded units.

Click to view attachment

Kodiak Hill imaged by Mars Perseverances Mastcam-Z.camera on sol 416.
Just about 450 meters away from Kodiak hill. I think this is as close as we are going to see this feature ever.

Panorama Sol 416 M2020.jpg1 by Tomislav Bandin, on Flickr

Yet another mosaic of Kodiak on sol 416, rotated to the horizontal
Interesting the multiple and partially opposed discordances in the upper center of the image

Click to view attachment

Nice image Tau. There appears to be a transition in depositional environment from left to right with the distance between topsets and bottomsets narrowing with an apparent transition to a more energetic, turbulent flow. Unfortunately much of the transition point is obscured by detritus.

Perhaps this was noted in earlier threads, but when we see a feature like this stand so tall above the surrounding plains, but cover such a small part of the area, that means that locally the erosion of other delta material must have been absolutely massive, right? And likely the only agent capable of carrying so much material away would have been catastrophic flooding, right? So while we see, in the hill and more generally in the delta layers built up by one era of water flow, there must have been subsequent eras (or episodes) of water flow that tore a lot of that down in the direction from the remaining delta material towards the center of the crater. Does that sound right or am I missing some other possible agent of erosion? Wind, impacts, and seismic activity from Syrtis Major seem like other possible agents in the destruction of the delta's original edge, but for so much material to be carried away, it seems like water had to be a major player.

It's possible the thick cross-bedded unit in Kodiak butte was formed by eolian processes. Sand dunes and drifts likely formed across the delta during dry periods. The cross-beds seem to dip to the southwest (or somewhere between south and east), which would be unexpected with those formed by fluvial processes on the delta. Perhaps coastal dunes formed as the lake level dropped and sediment became available to wind transport.

As for Kodiak butte itself, it could be an old crater pedestal, where the rock altered by the impact became slightly more resistant than the surrounding material. Over time, the rest is eroded away by mass wasting and wind, leaving the neat little butte.

Nope. Hundreds of millions of years and wind erosion are capable of this. See the best understood evolution of Gale Crater for similar massive volumes of wind erosion.

An incredibly slow mode of erosion, over incredibly long periods of time can literally vanish mountains.

The maximum extent of the original deltas is not known but there are delta remnants similar to Kodiak some 3 km to the East of the current Neretva Vallis delta edge. Mars was probably a quite energetic environment when the lake dried out with reasonably rapid (in geological terms) erosion and step-back of the delta front. This occurred between the final drying out of the lake and the effusive lava that spread across the crater floor and embayed the delta and outlying remnants. As djellison indicates the environment now is most benign and any erosion is painfully slow.

Sol 415 MastcamZ mosaic of that wonderful mesa :



And the same Sol, Navcam full panoramic :

Very nice, Damia. I couldn't resist making a circular version, hope you don't mind. This is without any extra processing. Later i will look at a higher contrast version.


We just had another drive on sol 418.

Phil

They have begun to image the light-colored beds at the base of Cape Nukshak:

Click to view attachment

The sol 418 panorama in circular form. Another drive on sol 419! - but not very long.

Phil

Click to view attachment

Sol 419. Not sure if we are turning to examine something interesting, or to improve helicopter communications for a new flight (or those parachute images).

Phil

Click to view attachment

I presume that we've driven up on that Nukshak plateau.

From the latest rover position it looks like Percy is still on the crater floor but probably plans to access the lower strata of the delta plateau from this location..easier access to avoid sand dunes perhaps?

Sol 419 update of Rover's location (quick screengrab).

Sol 419 Navcam panoramic. I just love here that feel of climbing up a hill.

That's a very nice panorama! Thanks, Damia.

This is sol 420's view in circular form. We moved about 60 m north to a rocky ledge.

Phil

Click to view attachment

1. Sol 419 Mastcam-Z left eye filters 1 to 6 multispectral principal components false colors
2. Navcam context
3. Mastcam-Z left eye filter 0 (RGB) raw image for comparison

1Click to view attachment . . 2Click to view attachment . . 3Click to view attachment

Gigapan - PERSEVERANCE 419 -N
© NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/ASU/NeV-T

Spectacular! And welcome to the forum.

John

Gigapan - PERSEVERANCE 414
© NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/ASU/NeV-T

Thanks Phil

Sol 420 Navcam panoramic. I really love this place, it's nice to finally see changes in the landscape.



Also deserved a Postcard :

I think this portion of your panorama might be our best view of Neretva Vallis yet. Neretva Vallis is the canyon cutting through the crater wall of Jezero Crater about 7 km to the NW, through which the river that formed the Jezero delta flowed. Once the rover drives ontop of the delta, we'll finally get to see an unobstructed view of the canyon which we'll be driving through in a year or two.

Click to view attachment

Sol 420 Supercam Remote Micro-Imager mosaic with sol 419 Navcam context
The mosaic shows the upper right corner of the sol 419 Mastcam-Z multispectral photo (see post #27), but from a slightly different perspective.

Click to view attachment Click to view attachment

Another sol 420 Supercam Remote Micro-Imager mosaic with sol 420 Mastcam-Z context

Click to view attachment Click to view attachment

very nice view tau !

Distance: 310 m (rmi scale is 2.2 cm per pixel at 2000 m - source Dr. Gwénaël Caravaca)

First closeup of the bedrock hereabouts. The texture looks like the Séítah rocks at first glance. But we may not have transitioned to the sub-delta layered unit yet.

John

...aaand now we've transitioned to the layered unit:

Click to view attachment

Wow, amazing shot.
Definitely should be "Jakku lithofacies" due to the resemblance to fictional planet covered in crashed star destroyers...

Sol 421, circular panorama with some nice outcrops between the aeolian ridges.

Phil

Click to view attachment

I concur with john_s. The rocks on Sol 420, best seen in Ant103's panorama, in my opinion look like the igneous rocks we saw earlier. Their colour, texture, and subdued relief reminds me of the upper Maaz formation members encountered early in the mission, remember the first failed coring attempt? Meanwhile the Sol 421 lithology is very different and is all consistent with prodelta mudstones, which must be an exciting moment for the mission's geologists.

That means sometime in the last drive, the rover crossed the geological contact between the two units. On the surface, this contact may not have been spotted, as the area is covered in sand ripples and the contact is between two quite soft rock types. However, perhaps they've detected the contact in the subsurface using Rimfax, the radar instrument. In fact, the last two drives look very well suited for doing such a radar survey: the rover pivoted northwards and has conducted a nearly straight, N-S transect across the boundary, so I expect that's what they're doing right now. The rover did this same thing the last time it crossed a major boundary, when it entered the Seitah Formation around Sol 200 (see image for the results of that survey). I wonder if this was a major motivation for the rover planners choosing to come here in the first place instead of going to Hawksbill Gap: because this area better preserves the contact between the delta and the lava flow, allowing them to do a transect & Rimfax survey.

Click to view attachment

Given the step back of the delta and what appears to be a contact between the effusive lava and sedimentary deposits I feel the layered unit is more likely later delta deposits than prodelta/lake bed remnants. Getting close up and personal will tell the tale.

Layered outcrops at the base of Cape Nukshak.
1. Sol 420 Mastcam-Z image mosaic from a distance of about 44 m, with enhanced colors. I see two different layered units here: a bluish-gray unit on top of a orange-brown unit.
2. Sol 420 Mastcam-Z anaglyph
3. Sol 421 Navcam, now very close (about 5 m)
1Click to view attachment . . 2Click to view attachment . . 3Click to view attachment

I agree, there's two distinct units here, corresponding to the different colours of the "bacon strip". I wonder what the significance of that colour difference is? This Mastcam zoom-in taken today shows cm or mm-scale layering. Perhaps that represents annual cyclicity. The grain size seems to be too fine to resolve individual grains, certainly it's finer-grained than the aeolian sediment ontop of it. I hope the rover does an abrasion here so we can see how thin the layering is & try and resolve some grains with the hand lens.

Click to view attachment

Sol 422 NavCam after a short bump
I have a feeling we could be here for a while
Click to view attachment

Sol 422 circular view. As Paul says, just a small move.

Phil

Click to view attachment

Peaceful sight of the rover's tracks winding across the floor of Jezero crater, imaged on sol 422 by Mastcam-Z Left.

Indeed, a very peaceful and beautiful picture. It looks like a romantic painting.

Layered outcrops at the base of Cape Nukshak, seen from a distance of about 6 m on sol 422
1. Supercam Remote Micro-Imager. A very rough grain-size estimate: in the rock about 0.4 to 0.5 mm, dark sand 0.2 to 0.3 mm
2. Mastcam-Z context
3. Mastcam-Z left eye filters 1 to 6 multispectral principal components

Click to view attachment Click to view attachment Click to view attachment

More layered outcrops at the base of Cape Nukshak in Mastcam-Z images from sol 423
1. Raw image filter 0 (RGB)
2. Left eye filters 1 to 6 multispectral principal components. A few stones have alternating blue/purple layers.
3. Right eye infrared filters 1 to 6 multispectral principal components 1 and 2
4. Anaglyph
Click to view attachmentClick to view attachmentClick to view attachmentClick to view attachment

Tau : any clue as to what minerals the colors represent?

do we have mudstone here ? grain is not visible but the resolution lacks a bit it seems

Gigapan - PERSEVERANCE 420-S-W
© NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/ASU/NeV-T