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Spirit Says Good-Bye To Home Plate
Pasadena CA (SPX) Mar 18, 2006 For the past several weeks, NASA's Spirit rover has been examining spectacular layered rocks exposed at a formation called Home Plate, in the Columbia Hills. The rover has been driving around Home Plate's northern and eastern edges of Home Plate, on the way to McCool Hill. Before departing, Spirit took this image showing some of the most complex layering patterns seen so far at this location. The layered nature of these rocks presents new questions for the rover team, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In addition to their chemical properties, which scientists can study using Spirit's onboard spectrometers, the rocks reveal a detailed history of the physical properties that formed them. In the center of this image, one group of layers slopes downward to the right. The layers above and below this group are more nearly horizontal. Where layers of different orientations intersect, other layers are truncated. This indicates complex patterns of alternating erosion and deposition that occurred when these layers were being deposited. Geologists have found similar patterns in some sedimentary rocks on Earth. Physical relationships among the various layers exposed at Home Plate provide crucial evidence in understanding how these Martian rocks formed. Scientists suspect the rocks at Home Plate were formed in the aftermath of a volcanic explosion or impact event, and they are investigating the possibility that wind also could have played a role in redistributing the materials. Spirit took this image with its Pancam, or panoramic camera, which shows larger-scale layering. Other photos, taken with the rover's microscopic imager, reveal individual sand-sized grains comprising these rocks, and other features essential to understanding the geologic history of Home Plate. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links Mars Rovers JPL NASA Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com Lunar Dreams and more
Scientist Posits Non-Water Source For Some Martian Gullies
Houston TX (SPX) Mar 16, 2006A planetary scientist said Thursday that some gullies lining the sides of impact craters on Mars may have been caused by dry landslides, not running water. |
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