Sol 0727: Skrinkle Haven Workspace Extension Mastcam-Z Mosaic
This text is based on the NASA/JPL media releases for this mosaic, online at https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25829 and https://mars.nasa.gov/news/9399/images-from-nasas-perseverance-may-show-record-of-wild-martian-river, where a larger version of this mosaic can be found.
Scientists think that the bands of rocks seen in this image may have been formed by a very fast, deep river – the first of its kind evidence has been found for on Mars. NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover captured this mosaic at a location nicknamed “Skrinkle Haven” using its Mastcam-Z camera between Feb. 28 and March 9, 2023 (between the 721st and 729th Martian days, or sols, of the mission).
The mosaic is made up of 203 individual images that were stitched together after being sent back from Mars. The natural color view is approximately how the scene would appear to an average person if they were on Mars, and the enhanced color view exaggerates subtle color differences in the scene.
“Skrinkle Haven” offers the clearest example of these curved rock layers – called “the curvilinear unit” – that had previously only been seen from space. Scientists are now debating what kind of powerfully flowing water formed those curves: a river like the Mississippi, which winds snakelike across the landscape, or a braided river like Nebraska’s Platte, which forms small islands of sediment called sandbars.
When viewed from the ground, the curved layers are arranged in rows, and appear to ripple out across the landscape. They could be the remnants of a river’s banks that shifted over time – or the remnants of sandbars that formed in the river. The layers were likely much taller in the past; scientists suspect that after these piles of sediment turned to rock, they were sand-blasted by wind over the course of eons and carved down to their present size.
The name “Skrinkle Haven” comes from the bay of Skrinkle Haven in Pembrokeshire Coast National Park in the UK, where a number of spectacular layered sedimentary rock outcrops are exposed to view.
This mosaic is featured in our Postcards from Mars series!
[Note: The preview images embedded in the text here are low-resolution 1/10 scale JPEGs, because the full-resolution versions of these mosaics would take a long time to load on cell phones or tablets/laptops without high-speed internet access. Full-resolution PNG versions can be downloaded with the hyperlinks below each preview.]
Natural & Enhanced:
Left eye color panorama, natural color (view high resolution PNG)
Right eye color panorama, natural color (view high resolution PNG)
Left eye color panorama, enhanced color (view high resolution PNG)
Right eye color panorama, enhanced color (view high resolution PNG)
Anaglyphs:
Left/Right eye RGB color anaglyph panorama, natural color (view high resolution PNG)
Left/Right eye RGB color anaglyph panorama, enhanced color (view high resolution PNG)
Left/Right eye BLUE channel anaglyph panorama (view high resolution PNG)
Left/Right eye RED channel anaglyph panorama (view high resolution PNG)
March 6, 2023