Sols 2645-2646: A Strange Trough on Western Butte

While descending from Western Butte, Curiosity has stopped to investigate a strange trough along the way. In the images from orbit, it looks like someone drew a thick straight line with a dark felt marker on the southeastern side of the butte. From the ground, it looks like a shallow ditch filled with dark sand. We don’t know what created this feature, or why it happens to be right here, so it’s worth stopping for a closer look.

Over the weekend (Sols 2642-2644), Curiosity drove downhill and parked at the top of the trough, which we named “Balgy.” The main event in today’s plan (Sols 2645-2646) is a large Mastcam stereo mosaic covering both sides of Balgy Trough. We’ll also take a smaller Mastcam stereo mosaic of laminated rocks nearby called “Baljaffray,” and grab a quick set of MAHLI and APXS observations on the bedrock target “Kennedys Pass.” After that, Curiosity will finish descending from Western Butte and will head south.

Written by Melissa Rice, Planetary Geologist at Western Washington University