Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to And over at Spirit, the lander can be seen far away.

re: And over at Spirit, the lander can be seen far away.

Two thoughts:

I think it could be a fracture of some sort, perhaps a "normal" (extensional) fault that is infilling with aeolean deposits. Does it look like there is displacement of the rock unit from side to side? Or rotation of outcrop? It appears that there are other similar features at angle to this one in the distance. I'll have to look at the orbital images again, but I don't think they have the resolution to see these features.

Could it be a dissolution structure? In the graben area of Canyonlands National Park in Utah (where dissolving evaporites result in normal faulting and graben development) there are big cracks where faults are expressed on the surface. Now I'm not saying there is enough (or any) subsurface water here to cause dissolution of the underlying evaporites, just arm-waving. I've got a picture somewhere of one of these cracks..I'll keep looking...

What I do know is that evaporites are structurally very weak. What are the regional structural effects of large impacts?

Ever play rock hammer golf, REB?

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