Curiosity: Potential Anomalies (Update 01/2014)

originally posted by: funbox
albeit hes calling it a broken shell, why didn't I think of that

for me the most amusing explanation so far, is the lines being caused by glaciation , mini icebergs are go

To me, it looks like some kind of mud that mushed itself up against some kind of sedimentary rock and then fell away, leaving an imprint of the sedimentation. Lots of sedimentary rocks in this area make it difficult to see that they're in any other way associated, unless the lines and layers are star shaped or join together in ways that look like growths or splits that a living thing might have done.

a reply to: Blue Shift

how quickly would the imprint have been made? , im not sure im following , are we talking about mud from the wet period ? or something that mushed more recently ?

funbox

originally posted by: funbox
how quickly would the imprint have been made? , im not sure im following , are we talking about mud from the wet period ? or something that mushed more recently ?

During the wet period. We've seen how mud has occasionally flowed into cracks and collected in acretions. Then it hardened once the wetness stopped and fell away from the sedimentary layers. Then who knows how it got to that particular spot. There are no sedimentary layers nearby, as far as I can tell. But there are a lot of rocks that just seem to have shown up out of nowhere with no other rocks near them that look anything the same. Blasted out of a meteorite crater, maybe? Unlikely it was volcanism.

a reply to: Blue Shift

cheers for the clarification , im following, , I estimate it to be around a foot across ,maybe a little more , but the odd thing on close inspection is that the lines appear to exit from the rocks face and onto the adjoining sand , maybe its just artefact's , hmm maybe a gif will clarify from the left nav perspective

hmmm



reminds me a little of this from quite a few months back



funBox

Coral base. Check out the tubules indicated by the shadows:

mars.jpl.nasa.gov...

What a nice group of new findings, nice work everyone.

And if Symptomoftheuniverse insists on staying away from us, like we're lepers or worse, that doesn't mean he's quit looking. He posted his very good find of what seem to be many half-rocks, broken rocks, or rock-eggs on Arken's recent thread mentioned above.

Here is Symptomoftheuniverse's post, and if anyone here can do gifs (I'm not sure, I've seen a couple from a few months ago) this may be an excellent chance to hone your rusty skills (hahahaha huh?). The post, with a link to the fine picture from the....mysterious......planet......of.......Mars!!!!:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

a reply to: Aleister

interesting , quite a mixup of materials on that photo



funBox

a reply to: funbox

Do you do gifs? Cool. And look at these guys on the right of that photo symptom posted. A weird and wonderous imprint in the one on the left bottom, a not-so-smiley surprised face above it, and then at the top right one of those rippling swooped-edge rocks that thrill and mystify the masses:

a reply to: Aleister

in Blueshift above photo there's some odd looking things too , maybe we've stumbled into a archaeologists dream after the long stretching sands of emptiness ..



funbox

originally posted by: Aleister
A weird and wonderous imprint in the one on the left bottom

Yeah, that's a curious one. Lots of unusual cross-layering and curves.

originally posted by: funbox
interesting , quite a mixup of materials on that photo

It's some kind of hatchery, if you go by all the busted open eggs:

a reply to: Blue Shift

that one looks quite detailed , is it from a later set ?



funBox

originally posted by: funbox
that one looks quite detailed , is it from a later set ?

I guess so. It's from this one:
mars.jpl.nasa.gov...

a reply to: Blue Shift

a new one , quite a few colours in it too



funbox

a reply to: funbox

These last few posts are all from the picture that symptomoftheuniverse originally pointed out. Interesting finds all over it. Hopefully it's indicative of interesting finds within the entire area that's being covered by Rover.

originally posted by: funbox
a reply to: Blue Shift

a new one , quite a few colours in it too

funbox

Yeah, that's one strange cookie. All the straight lines, mixed with the curve lines, give me a cautionary heave in the direction of, what, crystals (there are a couple very square shapes reminiscent of crystals)? But then there's the circle around the doo-hickey in the front section of the rock, which if I saw that on earth I'd think it was a machine part. What would create this type of rock? As you can tell, my geology knowledge about recognizing kinds of rocks and what created them is lacking, like a bison trying to understand reindeer.

Not to mention the left-side of a face, although both 'eyes' are above the sandline, popping up through the sand on the far left, mid-way down and to the left of the odd-duck rock. From there on its turtles all the way down.

An interesting rock (geologically speaking) from Sol 690: mars.jpl.nasa.gov...

Colour-balanced by me:


We can clearly see different materials presenet. This rock has some characteristics of an impact melt. Another interpretation could identify it as a conglomerate that has had one exposed face polished by many millennia of wind blown sand.

I would have hoped for some MAHLI shots, to better detail and colours, but alas there's only this one Mastcam shot.

I find these types of objects a lot more interesting and worth looking into, than the rocks or formation that look like machinery or fossils.

a reply to: Aleister

a very corroded engine of sorts maybe ?
you found that archaeologist yet , maybe a mechanic would be more suited

funbox

originally posted by: funbox
a reply to: Aleister

a very corroded engine of sorts maybe ?

you found that archaeologist yet , maybe a mechanic would be more suited

funbox

I'm not saying it's a machine part, I just want to make that clear for posterity of this thread - which could end up to be very important or at least noteworthy in the pioneering exploration of Mars. I do not think there are machine parts on Mars, although as I type this I realize that is wrong, the part of me that loves Ray Bradbury thinks there may have been an ancient (and by ancient, I mean beyond-original-grandma's time) civilization on the planet. Why not? It's been done before, by Earthlings, so who knows. But this particular rock, I don't know what that jumble pertains too, but it sure looks interesting. What geological forces did all of that, and is there anything similar on Earth (the planet formerly know as "Jamsssnfiakd" by the long-extinct Martians who came long before the Martians of Barsoom, yeah, Burroughs too)? Geologists anywhere paying any attention to this stuff? I dunno.

More excellent pics of ----- Rocks.