Details of layers in Victoria Crater

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University
High resolution image (4.0 MB)

This Opportunity Pancam "super resolution" mosaic of the approximately 6 m (20 foot) high cliff face of the Cape Verde promontory was taken by the rover from inside Victoria Crater, during the rover's descent into Duck Bay. Super-resolution is an imaging technique which utilizes information from multiple pictures of the same target in order to generate an image with a higher resolution than any of the individual images. Cape Verde is a geologically rich outcrop and is teaching scientists about how rocks at Victoria crater were modified since they were deposited long ago. This image complements super resolution mosaics obtained at Cape St. Mary and Cape St. Vincent and is consistent with the hypothesis that Victoria crater is located in the middle of what used to be an ancient sand dune field. Many rover team scientists are hoping to be able to eventually drive the rover closer to these layered rocks in the hopes of measuring their chemistry and mineralogy.

This is a Opportunity Panoramic Camera image mosaic acquired on sols 1342 and 1356 (November 2 and 17, 2007), and was constructed from a mathematical combination of 64 different blue filter (480 nm) images.




Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University
High resolution image (1.6 MB)

The cliff in this image from Opportunity's panoramic camera (Pancam) is informally named Cape St. Vincent. It is a promontory approximately 12 meters (39 feet) tall on the northern rim of Victoria crater, near the farthest point along the rover's traverse around the rim. Layers seen in Cape St. Vincent have proven to be among the best examples of meter scale cross-bedding observed on Mars to date. Cross-bedding is a geologic term for rock layers which are inclined relative to the horizontal and which are indicative of ancient sand dune deposits. In order to get a better look at these outcrops, Pancam "super-resolution" imaging techniques were utilized. Super-resolution is a type of imaging mode which acquires many pictures of the same target to reconstruct a digital image at a higher resolution than is native to the camera. These super-resolution images have allowed scientists to discern that the rocks at Victoria Crater once represented a large dune field, not unlike the Sahara desert on Earth, and that this dune field migrated with an ancient wind flowing from the north to the south across the region. Other rover chemical and mineral measurements have shown that many of the ancient sand dunes studied in Meridiani Planum were modified by surface and subsurface liquid water long ago.

This is a Opportunity Panoramic Camera image acquired on sol 1167 (May 7, 2007), and was constructed from a mathematical combination of 16 different blue filter (480 nm) images.




Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University
High resolution image (4.0 MB)

Another of the best examples of spectacular cross-bedding in Victoria crater are the outcrops at Cape St. Mary, which is an approximately 15 m (45 foot) high promontory located along the western rim of Victoria crater and near the beginning of the rover's traverse around the rim. Like the Cape St. Vincent images, these Pancam super-resolution images have allowed scientists to discern that the rocks at Victoria Crater once represented a large dune field that migrated across this region.

This is a Opportunity Panoramic Camera image mosaic acquired on sol 1213 (June 23, 2007), and was constructed from a mathematical combination of 32 different blue filter (480 nm) images.