Weird ‘peeling paint’, globules, pits, veins and more ‘bubbles’ – latest images from Curiosity

MAHLI image from sol 154 showing some of the “dripping globules” and light-coloured pits. Click for larger image. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

This location at Yellowknife Bay in Gale crater seems to be a smorgasbord of interesting and kind of weird-looking geological features. We’ve seen the “bubbles,” bright crusts and  “flower” (an embedded translucent mineral?) already, but there are more.

In some places, the ground surface looks like “peeling paint” (frozen mud?). After the once-flowing river(s) here dried out a long time ago, did the once-wet surface become frozen and preserved as we see it now?

Mastcam image from sol 153 showing some of the surface which looks like “peeling paint.” Frozen mud? Click for larger image. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

On some of the rocks, there are rounded globules which look like they are dripping down. Among those are other pits in which a lighter material can be seen, apparently covered for the most part by the other “drippy” material on the surface of the rocks. Are they related to the other bright patches and crusts or “bubble” features?

Mastcam image from sol 133 showing some of the bright veins and patches. Click for larger image. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.
Mastcam image from sol 153 showing some of the bright veins on lower areas of bedrock slabs. Click for larger image. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.
Mastcam image from sol 153 showing more of the “bubbles” on rocks (bottom part of image in particular). Click for larger image. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

There are also a lot of bright veins of material on the rocks, often in some of the shadowed areas near the ground. Are they also related to the other bright patches and crusts seen previously, as well as the light-coloured material in the pits just mentioned?

And of course, more of the odd “bubbles” which seem to infest the rocks around here like warts…

0 thoughts on “Weird ‘peeling paint’, globules, pits, veins and more ‘bubbles’ – latest images from Curiosity”

  1. One possible explanation could be that as the atmosphere thinned, liquid water on the surface started to boil away until a thick pasty mud was frozen in mid-gurgle. But I don’t think so. They look too much like cones. Are there any processes on Earth that make similar structures?

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