Curiosity Mars Rover Reaches Gediz Vallis Ridge (360 View)

Curiosity completed an arduous climb this week to Gediz Vallis Ridge on the 3-mile-tall Mount Sharp , while parked up the rover took this zoomable , rotatable image just for you.

Drag your mouse to look around within this 360-degree panorama captured by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover. See the steep slopes, layered buttes, and dark rocks surrounding Curiosity while it was parked below Gediz Vallis Ridge, which formed as a result of violent debris flows that were later eroded by wind into a towering formation. This happened about 3 billion years ago, during one of the last wet periods seen on this part of the Red Planet.

On Aug. 19, 2023, Curiosity’s Mastcam took 136 images that were stitched together into this mosaic after being sent back to Earth. The color has been adjusted to match lighting conditions as the human eye would see them on Earth.

a reply to: gortex

I see why the ancients called it the planet of war. Everything looks obliterated. Why so many fragmented stones cast about? It literally looks like it went through hell and back.

a reply to: KKLOCO

Most likely due to wast oceans at one point that distributed these rocks around the edges of Lake beds or something.
Probably why they put the landers to close to study things that could indicate previous life forms at some point.
Kinda like finding shells and such at the beach.
I'm no expert but just my guess.

Very solid hypothesis. Most deserts on Earth were once water bodies.
Even Death Valley was a massive pre-historic lake, only 128,000 to 186,000 years ago.

a reply to: Stopstealingmycountry

a reply to: TheValeyard

I appreciate your gratitude to my very uneducated hypothesis!

I guess also a possible grand and great overland adventure would be to test and prove robotic mobility in such a terrain.

originally posted by: Stopstealingmycountry
a reply to: KKLOCO

Most likely due to wast oceans at one point that distributed these rocks around the edges of Lake beds or something.

Not very likely, as water would have eroded the rocks in ways we do not see on these.
In other places they have found rocks and dust typical of lake beds.

To me, these look more like they were broken by changes in temperature.

Probably why they put the landers to close to study things that could indicate previous life forms at some point.
Kinda like finding shells and such at the beach.
I'm no expert but just my guess.

That's why they chose that location, because it looks like Mount Sharp was created by the accumulation of sediments brought to Gale crater by relatively large water flows.

a reply to: TheValeyard

The Sahara was once a vast ocean. See: Graveyard of the Whales

Half billion year old fossils are an industry in the North West Sahara. There are quarries that cut beautiful stone full of fossils that wind up being someones kitchen counter tops. All under the dunes.

I brought back a starfish fossil for my surfing, salty son.

Very cool. Thank you for sharing

originally posted by: ArMaP

originally posted by: Stopstealingmycountry
a reply to: KKLOCO

Most likely due to wast oceans at one point that distributed these rocks around the edges of Lake beds or something.

Not very likely, as water would have eroded the rocks in ways we do not see on these.
In other places they have found rocks and dust typical of lake beds.

To me, these look more like they were broken by changes in temperature.
That's why they chose that location, because it looks like Mount Sharp was created by the accumulation of sediments brought to Gale crater by relatively large water flows.

An apocalyptic event maybe? Mars, I think is a much, much older planet than earth by a long shot, it most certainly had water at some time. If Mars's (green surface) was blown away by some big event, it may have had orbital change as well.

When you look at Gortex's picture a centrepiece has what 'looks like' a sedimentary rock shelf hanging there and typical of many rocks you look at elsewhere on Mars, and if you stood on it, it would just crumble to dust, an aboriginal piece of rock, and no matter if sediment formed, or just so old in decay from millennia.

a reply to: smurfy

One of the things I have seen on Mars photos is that the sedimentary rocks all look less compressed than Earth rocks, maybe because of the lower gravity.