Sea Nodules or just Martian Rocks??, page 1

Well...

Not really sure about life, those look similar to accretionary lapilli, these are formed by wet ash from volcanos...

volcanoes.usgs.gov...

Accretionary lapilli are a common phenomena in phreatomagmatic eruptions and form in a tubulent volcanic wet ash plume (Moore & Peck, 1962). Growths is controlled by collisions of liquid coated solid or molten particles and binding as a result of surface tension forces (Gilbert & Lane, 1994, Schumacher & Schminke, 1995). By this mechanisms more and more material gets concentrically accreted out of the lapilli environment. Impact related accretionary lapilli have been found in the fall-back suevite within the N�rdlinger Ries crater (Graup, 1981) and in the upper Devonian Alamo breccia, south central Nevada (Warme et al., 2002).

Accretiona ry lapilli

reply posted on 8-2-2004 @ 09:32 PM by darklanser

They also look like deep sea nodules.

www.digistar.mb.ca...

Which suggests a previous ocean on Mars.

reply posted on 8-2-2004 @ 09:34 PM by worldwatcher

thanks yoda, that's a pretty good explanation, it does look like it one of the pictures but not in the others, what about it "protruding" from the main rock?

I'm still not 100% convinced.

reply posted on 8-2-2004 @ 09:40 PM by Yoda

Talking about the second link in the first post ?

Looking for a link but I do remember reading about these in National Geographic, and they were due to water erosion...

reply posted on 8-2-2004 @ 09:53 PM by worldwatcher

darklanser thanks

that is exactly what I had in mind, but I didn't know it was called deep sea nodules, the only thing I could think of was barnacle.

reply posted on 8-2-2004 @ 09:59 PM by Condorcet

Some of the spheres appear to be halved and quartered in the Sol 15 pictures.

marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov...

Some spheres appear to be consolidated into the rock outcropping material.
marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov...

Just rocks

reply posted on 8-2-2004 @ 10:03 PM by worldwatcher

yep I am thinking they are rocks now, but rocks that would have been found under water. and where there is water, there would have been life.

and what about the theory of water being underground? any thoughts on that?

reply posted on 8-2-2004 @ 10:16 PM by ArchAngel

Here is a RGB composite portion created with L4 L5 L6 filters.

No adjustments.

You can see that they are not reflective in the same spectrums as the surroundings.

More composites soon....

reply posted on 8-2-2004 @ 10:16 PM by Condorcet

Could the outcropping be limestone or travertine? We'd have a clue if we knew the photos were accurate color.

In ArchAngel's photo the rocks look like limestone.

[Edited on 8-2-2004 by Condorcet]

reply posted on 8-2-2004 @ 10:43 PM by ArchAngel

We cannot create accurate color without other data that will not be published for months, or maybe never.

The pic above is NOT balanced color. It is a method of showing that the objects reflect light differently in different frequencies.

Here it is with L2 L5 L7

[Edited on 8-2-2004 by ArchAngel]

reply posted on 8-2-2004 @ 10:52 PM by Yoda

Well...

Don't know about "accurate color" , but this thread is interesting, because the nodules could have been formed on land, or under water. From what I understand, here on Earth they are formed from "wet ash" from volcanic activity ( which would mean water in the atmosphere, or volcanic activity in an ocean, or sea ), which to me, Mars at one time had water and heat ( from the volcanic activity ) two prerequisites for live ( at least from what I understand what caused life on Earth ), the third would be food...

Wander what the life would have had for food...

reply posted on 9-2-2004 @ 06:22 AM by worldwatcher

thanks archangel for the color composite. It especially looks strange when you notice the little spheres attached to the main rocks. Again I don't know if there is another explanation for how they are on the rock, but they once again remind me of barnacles and how they attach themselves to rocks and then feed when the tide comes in.....perhaps this entire area in which opportunity is exploring was once completely under water and these are the fossilized forms of some very crude basic form of underwater life....

reply posted on 9-2-2004 @ 09:21 AM by ArchAngel

It especially looks strange when you notice the little spheres attached to the main rocks.

There is another answer, but if it is what I think that would mean Mars had standing water for a long time..

The Pearlsian Gulf

This room is called the Pearlsian Gulf because of all the "cave pearls" located in the pools of water. These formations are called cave pearls for a good reason. Not only because they look like pearls, but because they were created in much the same way oysters create real pearls. Oysters deposit a mucus-like substance around a grain of sand that gets into their shell, which hardens into a layer of pearl. Over time, these hardened layers build up to form a pearl.

In the case of the cave pearls, as water dripped from the ceiling and splashed into a puddle, tiny amounts of calcium dissolved in the puddle water slowly built up around small fragments of rock. Over a long period of time, the accumulated layers of calcium created these smooth, round pearls.

SOURCE

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