Curiosity Rover: A 'Bump' on sol 4478 'to get the rover in an ideal position to analyze and characterize a rock with a knobby/bumpy texture that appears quite different from the typical surrounding bedrock'. Post drive NavCam, Drive data & Traverse map (with scale). Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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We should get some good closeup images in the next days. Meanwhile here's the HazCam view (after the sol 4478 drive)
@PaulHammond51 Very nice! I take it y'all figure that is a single rock and not two rocks? The mineralization (or crystallization) is really out of place in that field!
Impossible to tell from these images if it's a pair or a single partially buried float rock. I'm not a geologist, but it has some features that could be consistent with a heavily weathered conglomerate. The close up images will provide a lot more clues that will support any contact science activities that may occur providing the rover is on stable ground after the drive.
Here's the L-MastCam view or the top of one of the rocks, this was taken 2 days before the drive. The post drive images will show much more
@PaulHammond51 Oh, that looks like weathering. But why did it weather so differently from the other rocks in the area? I've seen areas with rocks like that in Utah's canyon country. Very interesting!
@elaterite The canyon the rover is in at the moment is on a gentle slope, but that slope increases dramatically in a few tens of meters, so it's plausible that this interesting rock, may have originated at a higher elevation. The rover's notional path will take it higher in the coming months.
