Driving the Contact Line as Boxwork Campaign Nears End

We are in the final phase of the boxwork campaign, examining the contacts between the boxwork unit and the underlying layered sulfate unit. The rover recently crossed out of the boxwork into the layered sulfate and then back again; the team is now driving southward across the uppermost portion of the boxwork, where smooth bedrock makes the boxwork structures less obvious than at the “Nevado Sajama” drill sites.

On Monday MAHLI imaged targets named after locations around the Andes, including “Piedras Bonitas” and the brushed bedrock “La Calera,” which APXS analyzed. On Friday MAHLI and APXS examined a brushed, nodular bedrock at “Jaruma” and a larger nodule (or cluster of nodules) at the unbrushed target “Constancia.” Mastcam acquired extensive mosaics across the southern contact to help unravel the origin and evolution of the boxwork unit: an 18x1 mosaic on Monday and a 19x3 mosaic called “El Misti” on Friday.

boxwork, layered sulfate, rover, mahli, apxs, mastcam, nevado sajama, piedras bonitas, la calera, el misti