Mars Land Shark Rock

KNOCK KNOCK
"Who is it?
"Plumber, Ma'am"
"Plumber? I didn't ask for a plumber. Who is it?"
"Candy Gram"

Just when you thought it was safe to come out of the water:



Check out the sabertooth-looking shadow.

The top photo is the original. The second photo is lightened to show more detail. The third photo is a lightened photo of another angle. I'm sure there's a simple explanation on how this was formed, and I'm not saying it's anything but a Land Shark Rock, but it's certainly unusual to me.

Link to image

reply to post by papajake


A flag and a star for trying. The tooth shadows are pretty good though, and the open mouth. But not every rock is a star.

Well, that's thirty seconds of my life I won't get back.

reply to post by papajake


The shadow is being cast from the side not the opening. The jagged toothy shadow is from bumpiness of the top of the rock. Many of the other rocks have jagged shadows from the angle of sunlight.

It is a nice picture an interesting area though.

A while back any anomaly on Mars garnered attention that went on for days…

good to see some aspects of that quieting down.

Just the same, that is an interesting rock-- I mean Iguanasaur, buried in the desert but for his head and fearsome open jaw, waiting for an unsuspecting Martian doodle bug to wander by…

reply to post by papajake


Since we've got this here, were these rocks supposedly at the bottom of the long lost lake in Gale Crater? It still amazes me that they aren't all covered with dust, at least some of them. The dirt and dust is riding up between them, but it doesn't seem like a lot for tens of millions of years worth.

I'm beginning to wish they didn't send pictures back from Mars. I have to give you a star and flag OP for being creative though.

Aleister
reply to post by papajake

 

Since we've got this here, were these rocks supposedly at the bottom of the long lost lake in Gale Crater? It still amazes me that they aren't all covered with dust, at least some of them. The dirt and dust is riding up between them, but it doesn't seem like a lot for tens of millions of years worth.

The sand and dust gets blown here and there, covering some rocks sometimes, uncovering other rocks other times.

In fact, Gale Grater is thought to have undergone a huge wind transformation over the past 100s of millions of years. It is thought that Gale Crater may have been exposed eons ago, but was then covered by hundreds of meters of sediments (either water-deposited and/or wind-deposited sediments). Then, after millions of years, wind again eroded those layers of sediment away, again exposing the crater -- well, mostly eroded -- Aeolis Mons, or "Mt. Sharp", was left behind.

So the floor of Gale Crater could still be undergoing a general "uncovering" rather than a "covering".

By the way, that's what makes Mt Sharp/Aeolis Mons such an interesting landing location for Curiosity. Geologists feel that the exposed strata on the walls of Mt. Sharp will be able to be accessed by the rover, and that strata (some of which could have been deposited by a body of water) may tell a story about Mars' past geology.

reply to post by papajake


Baby Horta

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People


Thanks. Of course, if I had thought it out....NASA knew exactly the type of place they were landing, one that wasn't covered in dust but rocks that are laying exposed on the surface. Take away twenty of my stars please, and apply them to your count (I almost posted this with a Larry David "beloved Aunt" obituary spelling mistake on the last word).

Aleister
reply to post by Soylent Green Is People

 

Thanks. Of course, if I had thought it out....NASA knew exactly the type of place they were landing, when that wasn't covered in dust but rocks that are laying exposed on the surface. Take away twenty of my stars please, and apply them to your count (I almost posted this with a Larry David "beloved Aunt" obituary spelling mistake on the last word).

There are certainly unexposed rocks, too, under the surface. Plus a lot of the dust on Mars in general is the pulverized remains of other rocks (pulverized by wind erosion) that were once "on the surface" of the floor of Gale Crater when the floor was someplace above the current surface that we see.

Aleister
reply to post by papajake

 

But not every rock is a star.

I gave you a star for your rock star comment.

SasquatchHunter
reply to post by papajake

 

The shadow is being cast from the side not the opening.

Yes, I agree and I should have given a more detailed description of the sabertooth-looking shadow. The shadow is not being cast from the mouth of the Land Shark Rock.

That's it, you have left me with no other option.

I'm going to shoot myself in the face.



Hells bells.....land shark shadow, whatever next???

i swore to meself i would'nt look at any more threads with Mars rock pictures...
"sigh"..... now i swear it again. Be strong man, be strong....

reply to post by SecretKnowledge


Yes and that also includes Miley Cyrus get nude photos also.......or is that just me? Ahem

As an artist,all I can say is the shadows are not right. They show the light coming from several different angles at the same time, which means somebody had to 'manipulate' them somehow.
The hollow rock in the lower right corner is showing a square shadow that seems to be coming from within. Again, not natural. S&F for your post.
Would like to know what the explanation is!
Nugget

nugget1
As an artist,all I can say is the shadows are not right. They show the light coming from several different angles at the same time, which means somebody had to 'manipulate' them somehow.

Or the shadows could be at different directions if the ground is wavy (not a flat plane) -- such as it would be with the little sand dunes we can see in this image. The shadows are following the "lay of the land".

The picture is real, and it was taken by Curiosity's Left Navigation Camera on Sol 440. Here is a link to all of the left navigation camera images taken on that particular Mars day, including the OP's image:
mars.jpl.nasa.gov....

The hollow rock in the lower right corner is showing a square shadow that seems to be coming from within. Again, not natural. S&F for your post.

If a rock is hollow (or has a bit of a concave aspect to it, such as the one in the image), it could have a shadow "within" the concave part of it.

Here's a REAL Landshark!

It's even labeled as such!

reply to post by eriktheawful


The original "real" land shark was Chevy Chase.