Alien Anomalies

Timewarp · Dedicated to the truth

RE: Curiosity drilling strikes water!

Timewarp · Dedicated to the truth

This colour-difference image is a extreme close up view of the first bore hole.

There is long white object crossing the bore hole.

Could this object be a pipe and the drilling tool could not cut through it so a second drilling was started to the side of it?

Also, notice that the ejecta from the drilling does not appear to be fine dust.

621_300%_bore_1_close.png

Macten · Veteran Member

Looks like that is exactly what happened Xenon.

Also, if the soil contained frozen water then it might have melted when exposed to the heat of sunlight. I do not believe we are looking at true "rocks" but more like concretions or frozen mud.

Before

After

-- Edited by Macten on Monday 12th of May 2014 05:53:42 PM

Xenon · Administrator

It is possible that ground vibrations from the rover triggered it as there is also another slide happening in the bottom right of your last image

Timewarp · Dedicated to the truth

Xenon, It looks like a mini-landslide and fairly recent too. It's a shame there's not a close up colour version.

Could it possibly be that the soil movement is due to ground vibrations being set up by Curiosity when it moved into the area?

Xenon · Administrator

My initial thoughts for the disturbance where that it was due to the vibration of the drilling, we already know the surface dust is very fine as can be seen by the dusting on the rovers and by the wind driven dunes, we also have to realise that the gravity on Mars is much lower than it is here on Earth (about 62% lower) so that too would effect soil movement.

Timewarp · Dedicated to the truth

Here is a general view of the area where Curiosity has been drilling.

The two boreholes are circled in red, but what do you make of the area circled in yellow?

Timewarp · Dedicated to the truth

Xenon, Many thanks for your comments which have been duly noted.

The seepage of moisture seems to have happened some time after the initial drilling as can be seen in the image below.

The cropped view below was captured during sol 618 and shows no wet patches around the borehole of the first drilling.

This would tend to indicate that the seepage of liquid was fairly slow over a period of sols.

Xenon · Administrator

Great find Timewarp, I suspect the liquid is coming from the soil itself and not the pipe like objects you mention, in many images we see signs of recent running water, and the fact that in this instance the liquid has run away from the bore holes disputes the claims that any liquid would instantly evaporate or refreeze as soon as it reached the surface, we have also been lead to believe that any water under the surface layer would be frozen, but in this case it now seems unlikely that analogy is true as can seen from the bottom bore hole as there would not be enough friction from the drill to melt any ice.

Timewarp · Dedicated to the truth

The following two images are close up views of the two drillings.

Take note of the very small objects each drilling has revealed.

1st drilling.

2nd drilling.

Timewarp · Dedicated to the truth

Here's something to sweeten your appetite if you're interested in the geology on Mars.

Over the last couple of sols the drill attachment on Curiosity has drilled two holes in what would appear to be solid rock.

Viewing the image shown below it would appear that there is seepage of a liquid that has dampened the drilling area.

The big question is where is this liquid coming from and is it possible that the liquid could be water?

Are there water pipes embedded in the rock?

The image below is a colour-difference cropped view.

Ref: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/msss/00624/mcam/0624MR0026710010401578E01_DXXX.jpg

Alien Anomalies

"Creating a fiction when stating a fact destroys the credibility of the truth one are trying to convey"

"Creating a fiction when stating a fact destroys the credibility of the truth one are trying to convey"

"Creating a fiction when stating a fact destroys the credibility of the truth one are trying to convey"