[Phil V.]

If you'd like to be on or off this MARS ping list please FRail me

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Daily Updates - March 10, 2004

Opportunity Status for sol 45
Halfway Mark
posted Mar. 10, 4:15 pm PST

On sol 45, which ended at 12:50 p.m. PST on Wednesday, March 10, Opportunity awoke to ''Eclipse" by Pink Floyd in recognition . . . . blah . . . blah . . . blah . . .

The plan for sol 46, which will end at 1:30 p.m. PST on Thursday, March 11, is to use the science instruments on the end of the robotic arm on the area dubbed "Berry Bowl." =====================================

At this point it gets more intersting IMO . . . Another freeper directed me to this photo and asked my opiniion . . .

This was my reply . . .

see what you mean! I am eagerly anticipating more photos from this area that will hopefully yield another of the same area but shifted to allow a true 3-d. I tried to "tease" a 3-d from the ones available but I suspect that I've only created an illusion of depth here . . .

Notice in the upper left what appear to be "threads" between the two adjacent "berrys". . . . and of course the object of your interest (I assume) in the center.

Here is another example of what I theorize is related to what you have noticed . . . an indent in the rock that I noticed several days ago and surmized that at one time a "berry" was attached as I theorize was the case in the picture you brought to my attention . . .

. . . and . . .

Clearly (to me at least) the "berrys" cannot all be explained as the product of volcanic or meteor blast. Why the "stems"???

Thanks for bringing this to my attetion. I'll be looking for NASA/JPL to brush this area and photograph the results of "picking blueberrys". If they do not then they're missing the boat!!!

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[Cold Heat]

Volcanic does not necessarily mean molten rock.

We have little on earth to compare with this, but do have some similarities.

Volcanic activity in places like Yellowstone heat a mixture of water, sulfur and minerals and belch it skyward regularly.

Over time some very interesting structures are created. All of them different depending on the variables involved.

A lower grav and different mineral deposits would be more variables to add to the mix.

This is what I think we may be seeing here perhaps.............................?

[GeronL]

An anthill surrounded by berries??

[Cold Heat]

Something else, that I have noticed via the recent pics of the berries.

Many images show berries embedded into rock.

The berries may be freed over time as the rock deteriorates away.

Depending on what the material actually is that comprises the berries and the surrounding material, the slow dissolving by a slurry of water and minerals and then Martian wind could result in the thin connective leads on the berries as they are released from the containing substrate.

The water now is long gone, but the structures remain. Unaffected by perhaps as many as millions of years.

Definitely not rabbit turds.:-)

[Indie]

OMG. THEY ARE! Stems! Alluded to that in one of the very first pics when shadow could be seen under multiple berries where it appeared there was no support by the sand.

[Iberian]

Some of these pixs look like my insides after a good Mexican lunch.
Nice pixs. Thanks for posting them.

[geopyg]

I recently was looking through one of my trade journals and they were talking about methane hydrates. The structure of them (circular?) and the placement of them (between grains of sand) made me think of these photos from Mars. I did a google on methane hydrates nodules and came up with the following information. The stuff in CAPS are my highlights. Food for thought. Need to get back to work, but will look into what levels of methane are in Mar's atmoshpere.

Methane hydrate can form in rocks or sediments of any type given suitable pressures, temperatures, and supplies of water and methane (please see our discussion on Necessary Conditions for Methane Hydrate Formation). Although natural methane hydrate has been most commonly observed occurring as DISSEMINATED GRAINS, other forms are known, including massive layers of pure hydrate up to 4 meters thick, nodules that grow and displace surrounding sediments, veins filling small fractures, thin layers along bedding planes, and as a cement binding sedimentary grains together.

Similarly, hydrate is typically found with uniform distribution, showing clear, but subtle vertical trends of increasing or decreasing abundance. However, examples of heterogeneous distribution with zones of sparse or no hydrate interspersed with zones of high concentration are also common.

Although the factors that control the ultimate type, distribution, and amount of hydrate are still poorly understood, perhaps the primary controls are 1) the porosity and permeability and 2) the degree of lithification of the enclosing medium. The geologic environment in which the sediments/rock exist largely determines these aspects.

In the late 1960s, the global view of clathrate science began to change dramatically when "solid natural gas" or methane hydrate was observed as a naturally-occurring constituent of subsurface sediments in the giant gas fields of the Western Siberia basin.

Shortly thereafter, hydrate was also found in shallow, sub-permafrost sediments on the North Slope of Alaska. Soon, scientists, particularly those in the former Soviet Union, began to speculate that the low temperature/high pressure conditions necessary for hydrate formation should exist extensively around the globe, not only in permafrost regions, but also under deep oceans. The global hunt for methane hydrate was on.



FROM ANOTHER SITE:

Most natural gas hydrate is formed from biogenic methane, excreted by BACTERIA that eat organic matter that has been washed into (or died in) the ocean. This type of hydrate is concentrated where there is a rapid accumulation of organic detritus and also where there is a rapid accumulation of sediments (which protect detritus from oxidation).

Hydrates also form when faults permit natural gas (or other gases) to migrate from deeper inside the Earth's crust to the surface of the seabed at places with appropriate temperature and pressure levels.

These processes can also cause hydrates to form below permafrost, which acts as a cap to prevent further upward migration of gas into the atmoshere.

[Rebel_Ace]

Why doesn't NASA release THIS Photo?!?



Clearly, they are holding back the good stuff!

[Fledermaus]

Who's that guy on the right with the big chin? A martian? Jay Leno? lol

[R. Scott]

Someone spilled their Corn Pops?

[Liberty Tree Surgeon]

Do you know how long the exposures are for the camera? Notice just to the right of the hole in the "anthill" the blurry object. It almost looks like something that was moving during the exposure, with the "front" end (rightmost) probing to its right and left. The object is also the right size for the hole, if you've ever observed ants up close with their size to that of their hill exits in mind. Add to that the slight shadowing on the left of the "hill" indicating that it is raised (check the shadows on the surrounding balls), plus the shadow on the blurry object, and the mind wonders - martian crustacean coming out thinking the camera = sundown = lower UV exposure?

How's that for speculation?

LTS

[Darksheare]

Interesting.
Stems on the martian blueberries.
I cannot think of any natural activity that would create those short of maybe UNNATURALLY OCCURING solder spatter.
But that's highly unlikely.
Who'd be soldering stuff on Mars, everywhere, all at once to make THAT stuff?
(At least that stuff reminds me of older spatter.)