Rounded Rocks in Gusev Crater

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

"Blurrt" wrote in message
u...
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

"Blurrt" writes:

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.

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

January 6, 2003

Jochem Huhmann wrote:

*If* there was water once,

Oh great, yet another Mars water denialist.

Thomas Lee Elifritz
http://elifritz.members.atlantic.net/mars.htm

In article , 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.

--
-Andrew Gray

Andrew Gray wrote:

In article , 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

In m,
Brett Buck spewed:
Andrew Gray wrote:

In article , 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?

On Wed, 07 Jan 2004 00:07:01 GMT, "drdoody"
wrote:


"Blurrt" wrote in message
. 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.

January 6, 2004

Christopher wrote:

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

"drdoody" wrote in message
y.com...

"Blurrt" wrote in message
u...
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.