Looking at the RAT hole, it seems another of these "half-holes" i.e. the RAT was at an angle, and only cut half a circle.
Which is the cut half? By looking at the rim of the cut, which gets deeper in the cut half, and leaves a thin annulus of uncut material behind outside the semi-circle, I deduce that the ground half is the left side - the grey side, not the blue side.
The blue is the surface finish of the rock. You can see in the overview shot that the colour matches the brushed area beside it.
Which brings us to a couple of ideas. The blue is a glossy surface coating. It's either a desert varnish type coating, with perhaps some of jms's colour centres.
OR, it could be the fusion crust of a meteorite. The inside is dull and grey, but the outside is glossy and vitreous.
I'm not pushing either idea, just making sure people realise that the "blue" colour exists only in a thin surface film which is easily ground away to reveal grey rock inside (we don't need to roll the rock over, jms, we already have an inside view)
Space/Science » in reply to Mazatlal rock--MI and color
re: Mazatlal rock--my $0.02c worth
The whole thread (33 posts)
- Glassy material at the Spirit site.
- Mazatlal rock--MI and color
- Clarification
- some guesses and first impressions
- 3D image of the glassy material.