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Science Forum Index » Space Forum » Rounded Rocks in Gusev Crater
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| Blurrt |
 Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2004 6:20 pm |
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Just looking at the rocks on the floor of Gusev crater - they are rounded.
This implies water (or some other fluid) erosion.
I think from that first colour photo it is proven that Gusev indeed held
running water.
Nathan Rogers
Australia |
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| drdoody |
| Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2004 7:07 pm |
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"Blurrt" <nsaulr@optushome.com.au> wrote in message
news:3ffb432f$0$18746$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au...
Quote: Just looking at the rocks on the floor of Gusev crater - they are rounded.
This implies water (or some other fluid) erosion.
Or wind.
Doc |
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| Jochem Huhmann |
| Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2004 7:13 pm |
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"Blurrt" <nsaulr@optushome.com.au> writes:
Quote: Just looking at the rocks on the floor of Gusev crater - they are rounded.
This implies water (or some other fluid) erosion.
Not neccessarily. Dust blowing over it for a few million years may have
quite similar effects. BTW mistaking the effects of winds and dust for
effects of water seems to be all too easy when dealing with features on
Mars.
Quote: I think from that first colour photo it is proven that Gusev indeed held
running water.
*If* there was water once, nothing that was in direct contact with it
will be found on the surface. The mission planers are expecting to look
at debris from (later) impacts, which may have digged deep enough to
shatter sediments from below over the surface.
Jochem
--
"A designer knows he has arrived at perfection not when there is no
longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take
away." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery |
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| Thomas Lee Elifritz |
| Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2004 7:49 pm |
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| Andrew Gray |
| Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2004 7:56 pm |
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In article <3ffb432f$0$18746$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au>, Blurrt wrote:
Quote: Just looking at the rocks on the floor of Gusev crater - they are rounded.
This implies water (or some other fluid) erosion.
This is Mars, a gentle planet-sized sandblaster...
Quote: I think from that first colour photo it is proven that Gusev indeed held
running water.
I wouldn't say it immediately looks that way to me.
--
-Andrew Gray
shimgray@bigfoot.com |
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| Brett Buck |
| Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2004 9:15 pm |
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Andrew Gray wrote:
Quote: In article <3ffb432f$0$18746$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au>, Blurrt wrote:
Just looking at the rocks on the floor of Gusev crater - they are rounded.
This implies water (or some other fluid) erosion.
This is Mars, a gentle planet-sized sandblaster...
I think from that first colour photo it is proven that Gusev indeed held
running water.
I wouldn't say it immediately looks that way to me.
I does kind of *look* like that, but looking at it really isn't
definitive or compelling. Besides, I though Gusev was a lake, and it
takes running water to round off rocks like that. The wind, over
probably 4-ish billion years, could easily cause the same effect.
Brett |
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| Ned Pike |
| Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2004 10:52 pm |
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In news:RYJKb.6432$Pq5.6156@newssvr27.news.prodigy.com,
Brett Buck <buckbw@pacbell.net> spewed:
Quote: Andrew Gray wrote:
In article <3ffb432f$0$18746$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au>, Blurrt
wrote:
Just looking at the rocks on the floor of Gusev crater - they are
rounded. This implies water (or some other fluid) erosion.
This is Mars, a gentle planet-sized sandblaster...
I think from that first colour photo it is proven that Gusev indeed
held running water.
I wouldn't say it immediately looks that way to me.
I does kind of *look* like that, but looking at it really isn't
definitive or compelling. Besides, I though Gusev was a lake, and it
takes running water to round off rocks like that. The wind, over
probably 4-ish billion years, could easily cause the same effect.
Brett
I'm pretty sure I'm talking out of my ass here, but here's my question. Is
the Reynolds number for Martian atmospheric flow (wind) in any way
comparable to Earth-normal water flow? |
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| Christopher |
| Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2004 5:47 am |
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On Wed, 07 Jan 2004 00:07:01 GMT, "drdoody"
<drdoody@dieslowly.sbcglobal.net> wrote:
Quote:
"Blurrt" <nsaulr@optushome.com.au> wrote in message
news:3ffb432f$0$18746$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au...
Just looking at the rocks on the floor of Gusev crater - they are rounded.
This implies water (or some other fluid) erosion.
Or wind.
Wind blown dust you mean. |
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| Thomas Lee Elifritz |
| Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2004 7:04 am |
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January 6, 2004
Christopher wrote:
Quote: Or wind.
Wind blown dust you mean.
Sure, wind blown sub-micron dust in a 6 to 10 mbar atmosphere, dust which we know
is NOT composed of the same material as the rocks, erodes the rocks smooth. And
all that water, over millions of years, which just a few year ago didn't even
exist in the minds of many, erodes very little.
I don't think so.
Thomas Lee Elifritz
http://elifritz.members.atlantic.net |
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| Blurrt |
| Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2004 8:17 am |
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"drdoody" <drdoody@dieslowly.sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:F4IKb.200$XR1.136152240@newssvr11.news.prodigy.com...
Quote:
"Blurrt" <nsaulr@optushome.com.au> wrote in message
news:3ffb432f$0$18746$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au...
Just looking at the rocks on the floor of Gusev crater - they are
rounded.
This implies water (or some other fluid) erosion.
Or wind.
Doc
Yeah, I suppose. The NASA website states that too (which is where I suppose
you got the idea). It just seems to me that if we have an inflow channel
then there should be some signs of erosion associated with that inflow. I
guess the rocks need to be overturned by the rover to see if they are smooth
underneath as well. (Check out the airbag disturbed pics)
Nathan. |
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| Patrick |
| Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2004 11:28 pm |
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I think you guys are forgetting the time scale. The water
probably flowed 3 billion years ago. The rocks were deposited
by crater impacts later. A couple of billion years is plenty of
time for dust in the atmosphere to round the rocks.
Patrick |
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| Patrick |
| Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2004 11:28 pm |
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I think you guys are forgetting the time scale. The water
probably flowed 3 billion years ago. The rocks were deposited
by crater impacts later. A couple of billion years is plenty of
time for dust in the atmosphere to round the rocks.
Patrick |
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| CL Vancil |
| Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2004 5:38 am |
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| CL Vancil |
| Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2004 5:38 am |
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| Dick Morris |
| Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2004 12:04 pm |
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drdoody wrote:
Quote:
"Blurrt" <nsaulr@optushome.com.au> wrote in message
news:3ffb432f$0$18746$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au...
Just looking at the rocks on the floor of Gusev crater - they are rounded.
This implies water (or some other fluid) erosion.
Or wind.
Doc
We have a lot of rocks here in Washington State, and such smooth,
rounded surfaces I've seen only on river rocks. Ditto for all the rocks
I've seen down in the deserts of Utah and Arizona. |
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